Preparing Leather. Leather used in making footwear came from various animals and was prepared by scraping and tanning. Color could be added to the leather, but since dyeing material of any kind could be expensive, much footwear was left in the natural color of the leather. The process of preparing leather for use in clothing and dyeing produced terrible smells, and therefore tanneries seem to have been located around the margins of Roman cities, at least as far as the archaeological evidence in Rome and Pompeii shows. In Rome, the tanning industry was located across the Tiber, away from the heart of the city. In Pompeii, it was near one of the city gates away from the center of the city.

Materials and Coloring. Wool was the most common material used for clothing, and it came mostly from domestic...