Are the Vivienne Westwood Roman Boots Really Roman?

Vivienne Westwood came out with these Vivienne Westwood Roman Boots for her Fall RTW 2009 collection:

Vivienne Westwood Roman Boot Fall RTW 2009 collection

They’re extremely gorgeous and are to die for. These are the kind of shoes that make you want to splurge an entire paycheck (or paychecks) on. Both the red and the black colors are must-haves and not just a few shoe bloggers have professed their love for these Vivienne Westwood Roman Boots.

However, while the boot’s beauty is undeniable, could they really be called a Roman boot?

Take here drawings of different roman boots:

Roman boot drawings from Bbaboucha.com

Compared with the Vivienne Westwood boots above, only the strappy feature is present.

So let’s say that for fashion’s sake Vivienne Westwood’s design has much more leeway for artistic expression, but still, don’t the boots look more like a pirate’s boot?:

A pirate boot

Because of the flared upper shaft and the buckled straps, the Vivienne Westwood Roman Boots look more at home on a ship at sea than on a Roman warrior.

But anyway, I guess the name is all just trivial when the end product is really beautiful. For the record, Vivienne Westwood also has a pair of pirate boots called, well, the Vivienne Westwood Pirate Boots:

With all the straps on these, perhaps the names of the Roman boot and the Pirate boot were interchanged?

You can purchase the Vivienne Westwood Roman Boots for $720.00 and the Vivienne Westwood Pirate Boots for $583.15 at Zappos.com.