carbatina

thumb|right|200px|Ernest Hébert's 1855 The Girls of Alvito in the [[Papal States, wearing carbatinae with footwraps]] thumb|A Casertan woman circa 1860 wearing carbatina and traditional Campanian clothing The carbatina (pl. carbatinae) was a kind of shoe common among the rural poor of ancient Greece and Rome from remote antiquity to around the 3rd century, consisting of a piece of rawhide pulled around the foot and then tied down to hold it in place. Having no upper or separate sole, the carbatina is among the simplest forms of footwear in the world and is sometimes used as a general name for similar footwear in other cultures.

==Name== thumb|right|250px|An 1884 depiction of carbatinae Latin was a transcription of Greek karbatínē (), probably cognate with kárphō () and originally meaning something like "made of dried skin" or "hide". Rather than referring to all leather shoes, however, use seems to be entirely restricted to simple forms of shoes worn by the rural poor or to footwear hastily assembled from limited materials. It is used in Aristotle for a similarly basic covering used to protect the feet of camels and in Philo for a thick leather tarp used as protection by attackers during sieges.