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

AMENSURA. MENSURA; 755
Ploklm. G'eog. i. 17.) Allowance must also be'III. Determsnation of' the Greek cnrd Rloman made for the windings of the coast, the diflficulAlecasurles. ties of the navigation, the currents of the sea,
1. lMeasures of length. - Before we can attempt the varying skill of the seamen, and other circumto fix the Greek and Roman foot, we must examine stances.
the question, whether the former people (for no A day's journey by land was reckoned at 200
one pretends it of the latter) had different standards or 180 stadia (Herod. iv. 101; Pausan. x. 33;
of length. We think that Ukert has satisfictorily Ptol. i. 9), or for an army 150 stadia. (Herod. v.
shown that they had not di#e}rent standards, zbt 53, 54.) And here also delays would often occur.
always used the Oly7mpiac stadiumc and the fbot cow- The ancients themselves differ widely in their acresponding to it. (Ukert, Ueber die Alrt der Griechen counlts of distances, not only as compared with the
neld Mirner die Eztffirnungen -zz bestiU)nen, z1ad true distances, but with one another, a fact which
iiber das Stadiuni, Weimar, 1813, 8vo.; G*eoq. d. the theory of a separate itinerary stade cannot acGriech. u. Ri;mner, vol. i. pt. 2. pp. 55, &c.) It is count for, but which is a natural result of their
only possible here to give a brief statement of the mode of reckooning, as explained above.
argument. The following testimonies are advanced in supIt has been supposed by some authors that there port of the view. of different stadia. Censorinus,
were other stadia in use in Greece besides the who lived in the time of Alexander Severus, after
Olvmnic. The most ancient writers ilever either speaking of the astronomical measurements of
say or hint at such.a thing: but when we compare Eratostihenes and Pythagoras, says that by the
the distances between places, as stated by them stadium used iii them we must understand "the
in stadia, with the real distances, they are found stadium which is called Italic, of 625 feet, for
almost iin-ariably too great if estimlated by the there are others besides this, of different lengths,
Olympic stadium, never too small. Hence the as the Olympic, which consists of 600 feet, and
conclusion has been drawni, that the Greeks used the Pythian, of 1000." (De Die Natali, c. 13.)
for itinerary measurements a stade much smaller This passage is evidently a complication of blurnthan the Olympic. Major Rennell, who analyses ders. The "Italit stadium," unkunown elsewhere,
several of these statements, gives 505k feet for the is manifestly the same as the Olympic, but reckoned
value of the itinerary stade. (Geography of Hero- in Roman feet, of which it contained 625. The
dotus, sec. 2.) It is, however, scarcely credible " Olympic of 600 feet " is the same in Greek feet.
that these authors, some of whom expressly inform The value given. for the Pythian stadium is clearly
us that the stade contained 600 feet, should reckon wron, for the Olympic race-course was the longest
distances by another stade, without giving any in- in Greece (as appears from the passage of Gellius
timationi of the fact; especially as they usually quoted below), and besides Censorinus obviously
wavrn their readers when they speak of measures confounds the extreme length of the race collrses
differing from the common standard. (HIerod. ii. 3, with the portion of them mneasured out for the
17, 89, 95; Plin. II N. vi. 26. s. 30.) T'he reaI race, the same iame, stadin2n, being applied to
cause of tIhe excess in the itinerary distances of both; for it is very possible that the former
the Greeks is explained by Ukert ill a way whichl were of diffirent lengths, though the latter never
seems decisive of the question. The mllost ancient varied.
mode of reckoning distances among the Greeks, as Aults Gellius (i. i) quotes from Plutarch to the
among most other nations, was by the number of effect that Hercules measured out the stadium at
days required to perform the jourille. h'\lell the Olympia withl his onh feet, making it 600 feet
stadium was brought into use, the distances were long; and that whei afterwards other stadia were
still computed by days' journeys, buht transferred established in Greece, containing the same number
into stadia by reckoning a certain number of stadia of feet, these were shorter than the Olypmpic in the
to a day's Journey. (Herod. iv. 85, 86.) It is proportion by which the foot of Hercules exceeded
evident that nearly all the distances given by the that of other menl. But whatever there is of truth
ancient Greek writers were computed, ssot reasured. in this story is probably tIe obscure remnant of
The uncertainties attending this mode of compu- an ancient tradition respecting the existence of a
tation are obvious, and it is equally obvious that, standard of length greater than the common one,
as a general rule, the results would be above the at some distant period: a matter which will be
truth. At sea the calculation was made accordingr presently referred to.
to the number of stadia which could be sailed over Attempts have been made, especially by Rome
in a day by a good ship, in good order, and with a de l'Isle and Gosselin, to prove the existence and
fair wind. Any failure in these conditions (and to determine the lengths of different stadia from
some such there must alwvays have been) would tile different lengths assigned by ancient writers to
increase the number of days' sail, and therefore the a great circle of the earth. But surely it is far
calculated distance when reduced to stadia. Si- more just and reasonable to take these different
milarly by land a day's journey was reckoned values as a proof (among various others) that the
equal to the number of stadia which a good tra- ancients did not know the real length of a great
yeller (&v'Vip e uwtvos) could perform in a day, which circle, than, first assuming that they had such
for obvious reasons would generally exceed the knowledge, to explain theim as referring to different
space passed over under ordinary circumstances. standards.
Even the Greeks themselves are not agreed as to On the whole, therefore, there seems no reason
the number of stadia in a day's journey. Ilero- to suppose that different stadia existed before the
dotus (iv. 86) gives 700 statdia for the voyage of third century of the Christian aera.
a sailing ship by day, 600 by night. Most conm- From this period, however, we do find varieties
muonly 1000 stadia were reckoned as a 24 hours' of the stade, the chief of which are those of 7 and
voyage, but under unfavourable circumstances 7. to the Roman mile. (Wa1urm, de Pond. &c.
scarcely 500 were performed. (Marin. Tyr. op. ~ 58.)
ac 2: