Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

MENSURA. MIENSUlRA. 7 3
every civilised community for determiniing the applied, the square of the decempReda (or 100
boundaries of land. Herodotus (ii. 109) men- square feet) being its scrupulunt or 208th part.
tions a tradition, which assigned the invention Also 36 scrpspula made one clima, and 4 climata
of geometry to such a necessity which arose in one actus qluadratts. In the longitudinal actus of
Egypt in the reign of Sesostris. Qf course this 120 feet, the oblong actus of 120 x 4 (or 480),
tradition is now referred to merely as an illustra. square feet, and the actus quadrLaits, with its
tion, not as expressing an historical fact. As in double the jueerum, we also see the connection of
the other cases, the origin of the systeml lies far the duodecimal system with the decimal.
back beyond the reach of history; and all that cam In the corresponding part of the Greek systen,
be done is to trace, with some probability, its suc- the wrhAEOpov answvers to the actus, but with just
cessive steps, as indicated by the nature of the the difference between the decimal and duodecicase, by the names of the measures, and by the mal systems. As a measure of length, it is 100
statements of anclent writers. Here too, as in the feet (10 x 10 instead of 12 x 10); and as a meaitinerary distances, the original unlit of the system sure of surface, it is the square of 100, or 10,000
was probably not a specific number of feet, but square feet. The apoupa was the quarter of it,
some natural quantity, which was afterwards brought that is, 2500 square feet, or the square of 50
into accordance with the standard of the smaller feet. A measuring rod of 10 feet, achaaLos, apmeasures. Also it is to be observed, that these pears also in the Greek system, and of this the
measures are, from the nature of the case, measures rAx'Opov was the square. Also, 6 leahanoi or 10
of surface, although in practice they were often GpyoLat or 40 ar'XeLs made one 61utya or chain.
used merely as measures of length. The precise This system was connected with the itinerary
fact seems to be that the first natural measure of measures by reckoning 6 pethras or 100 dpy7ati
the sort was one of a considerable length and a very to the stadium. (Ilerod. ii. 149.) For a cormmloderate breadth; that then, this measure came plete view of the Greek and Roman measures of
to be used as a measure of length alone; and then, length and surface, see the Tables; and, respectfor the measure of surface connected with it, they ing the Roman land measures, compare ACTUS,
did not revert to the original narrow strip, but took AGcIUxENSORES, DECE.IPEDA, JUERUaI, and
the square of its length. This seems to follow Niebuhr's Essay On the Roman1c lo de of' laarfrom what the ancient wvriters tell tus of tile (cltzs, tifiouig Landed l'rop.erty, History of' Romze, vol.
which was the base of the Roman system of land ii. app. i.
measures, amd which is thus defined by Pliny: 4. Aleasures of Capacity. - The measures of
Achlis vocabtour ti quLO ores agerentur ctu aratro capacity seem to have been arranged on a similar
uro implettL justo (lI. N. xviii. 3); by which he principle to those already noticed; that is, they
seems to mean the distance which a yoke of oxen were not derived by a definite process of calcucould draw a plough at one effort, that is, a sizn/le lation firon the measures of length, but were orij'/urra o: this, he adds, is 120 feet in length. So ginally nothing nmore than the names of different
also Homer (II. x. 351, 352) describes a distance sized vessels of no very definite capacity, which,
as beingm "as far as are the furrows of mules." We when the metrical system came to be definitively
have, as analogous measures, the versZus, or length constituted, were brought into harmony, on the
of a furrow before the plough was turned, by which, one hand with the measures of length, on the
Varro tells us (R. R. i. 10), they measured in Cam- other with those of weight.
pania, the jucguq (yoke of oxen) by which, he says, The question still remains, which of the three
they measured in further Spain, and the Greek kinds of measures was the one first constructed,
iipovpa, a filwrovw; though the jugoum was perhaps and the one from which the others were derived.
never anly thing else but a measure of surfmace, for
it is defined as the quantity of land which a yoke c d Rosn easue
of oxen could plough in a day. Even with respect desiced
to the actus itself, a doubt as to its origin is sug- In all that we have said about the origin of
gested by the use of the word in Roman law for measures of length, it has neither been stated
the right of driving cattle through a field (Cic. p. ilor implied that these measures, as definitely fiared
C'aeci2. 26), and also for the path reserved between y t/he precise determinaction of their unit, were obhfields for the passage of cattle (Dig.) just as we tained in the manner and order that has been dealso use the word drove. Possibly, in the actzus, as scribed. All that has been said may be true, as
determined in length at 120 feet, amid in width at we believe it is, and yet the question, WVHAT was
4, we may have both senses of the word combined. thefoot, and WHENCE was it derived, still remains
The length of this actus, squared, gave the actsis unanswered. To this question we now proceed.
quadrcatms of 14,400 square feet, *vwhich, with its Our limits quite forbid the full discussion of the
double, the jtzerum of 28,800 square feet, formed various opinions which have been put forward on
the base of the Roman system of land measures. this subject, or even the elaborate development
Twojugera, which, according to Varro (I. c.), formed of that view which we believe to be the' correct
originally the birth-right of every Roman citizen, one; and which is, in the mainl, that which has
were thence called herediumz; 100 heredia made a been put forward by Bickh in his very careful
centuria of 5,760,000 square feet, or the square of and learned work entitled, Metroloyisc/re Untersu2400; 4 centzriae. arranged as a square, made a chungen iiber Gewichte, Miinzfiisse und lMasse des
saltus. In this system, the smallest subdivision, Altertlhums in ihremo Zusammen/hange, Berlin, 1838,
and that which connected the system with the 8vo., and to the principal points in which Mir.
foot, was the area of 100 square feet, or the square Grote assents, in his review of Bickh's work hi
of ten feet, which was the length of the pole [Dse. the Classical Mluseoum for 1844, vol. i. p. 1. The
CEMPEDA; PaiRTICA] used in measuring land. To two chief questions involved in the discussion are
thejlgceru22, which gradually superseded the acus these:- 1. Whence were the Greek and Romper
as the unit of the system5 the uncial division was metrical systems derived? 2. In each of those
3c