1.] [Illustration: PLATE XXIII.] It is unusual to find any trace of boots or shoes in the representations of Babylonians.

A shoe patterned with a sort of check work was worn by the king; and soldiers seem to have worn a low boot in their expeditions.

But with rare exceptions the Babylonians are represented with bare feet on the monuments; and if they commonly wore shoes in the time of Herodotus, we may conjecture that they had adopted the practice from the example of the Medes and Persians.

A low boot, laced in front, was worn by the chiefs of the Susianians.

Perhaps the "peculiar shoe" of the Babylonians was not very different.