Sandals formed the principal footwear of civilians—royalties or commoners as the case may be—though the feet were often left bare. The ordinary sandal had a thin sole and a small cap for the heel, apparently made of strips of leather which were sometimes coloured red and blue alternately, though more frequently the entire sandal was of a reddish hue, while it was held in position by a loop round the great toe, and by a string which was laced across the instep and tied in a bow. This was the type of sandal worn by Sargon. There was, however, an entirely different sandal in vogue at the time of Ashur-bani-pal; the sole of this later sandal was of considerable thickness, especially at the heel, while the upper leather did not merely form a protecting cap to the heel but covered the whole side of the foot. But shoes were used as well as sandals as early as the time of Sennacherib; those represented on the bas-reliefs are of a clumsy make, though finely decorated with crescents and rosettes, and they were seemingly laced in front. [Illustration: FIG. 98. Foot-spearman (1st period, Nimrûd).] [Illustration: FIG. 99. Foot-archer (1st period, Nimrûd).] But the military uniforms of the Assyrians show far greater variation than the apparel of kings, eunuchs and attendants. In the early Assyrian period the foot-soldiers wore a short tunic and a fringed girdle, their heads being protected by a pointed helmet; the arms, legs, neck and feet were generally bare, though the latter were occasionally shod with plain sandals. The infantry included archers, spearmen and swordsmen, while the archers were often further armed with swords and sometimes with maces, and appear to have formed the pick of the foot-soldiers. All three divisions were protected by small hand-shields, the bowmen often being attended by another warrior armed with a spear, who acted as shield-bearer. In the reign of Shalmaneser II we frequently see the bowmen clad in a long coat of mail reaching from the neck to the ankles (cf. Fig. 44), but in the Sargon period the difference in the equipment of the foot-soldiers becomes more pronounced. There are at least three different kinds of archer. First of all there was the light-armed bowman, who was practically naked but for a loin-cloth, which supported a quiver, and a head fillet (cf. Fig. 100). Next came the more simply equipped of the heavy-armed (cf. Fig. 101), who was clad in a coat of mail reaching from the neck to the waist, beneath which was a fringed tunic extending to the knees, while their feet were generally protected by sandals, and the head covered by a pointed helmet. The principal feature which differentiated the appearance of the most heavily armed archers from that of the foregoing was the long deeply fringed tunic (cf. Fig. 102), over which a coat of mail was worn similar to that worn by the archers of the second class. [Illustration: FIG. 100.] [Illustration: FIG. 101.] [Illustration: FIG. 102.]