Udo

Udo a warm close-fitting shoe of felt (Mart. 14.140). It is clear that the translation sock in dictionaries is wrong, for Dig. 34, 2, 25.4, specially distinguishes them as worn calceamentorum loco, whereas the impilia are said to be vestis loco. The impilia therefore take the place of our socks, and are equivalent, or nearly so, to the Greek πῖλοι (Hes. Op. 542), which seem to have been strips of felt wrapped round the feet and extending up the leg: so in Plat. Symp. p. 220 B, we find ὑποδεδεμένων καὶ ἐνειλιγμένων τοὺς πόδας εἰς πίλους, the first participle referring to the sandals, the second describing the πῖλοι. They were not ordinary articles of Greek clothing, but were worn in extreme cold, e. g. at the siege of Potidaea. The name may, however, also have been given to felt-soles (probably=Latin pedule), since Pollux (7.91) distinguishes πῖλοι from περιειλήματα ποδῶν. The same passage gives as names for a sort of stocking πέλυντρα and ποδεῖα: the latter of these words occurs in Theophr. H. P. 7.12, 8, and is rendered impilia by Pliny ( Plin. Nat. 19.32) in his translation of that passage. (Becker-Göll, Charikles, 3.284; Gallus, 3.226;--Marquardt, Privatleben, p. 502.)

[G.E.M]