By this paſſage I ſuppoſe is meant only, that a, mile of eight ſtadia of 600 feet each, meaſured by the Roman foot, was inferior in length to one of the ſame nominal dimenſions, but meaſured by the Greek foot; which laſt we may reaſonably conclude to have been in general uſe, in eſtimating the length of the Radium, which was a meaſure confeſſedly of Greek original.
It ſhould be conſidered, that this quantity was aſſigned to each mile, at the firſt erection of mile-ſtones, when their computations might be leſs correct, and when, as Aulus Gellius tells us was done in later ages in ſome places, they preſerved the number[1] of feet in a ſtadium, though they reckoned by a ſhorter foot.
Mr. D'Anville has, I think, incautiouſly blamed Cenforinus, for faying, that the Italic and the Olympic itadia were of different lengths, when he might mean only, that the Olympic[2] and the were different, ſince We can ſcarcely ſuppoſe ~a man of the learning of Cenforinus to be ignorant of the difference of length between the Greek and the Roman foot..
Length of the Greek foot.
Let us now endeavour to aſcertain the length of the Greek foot, as on this the other calculation muſt in a great meatfure depend. For this purpoſe it will be neceſſary firſt to conſider the length of the Roman foot.
- ↑ Cætera quoque ſtadia in term Græcia, ab aliis poſtea inſtituta, pedum quidem elſe numeno ſexeentum, ſed tamen aliquantulum breviora. Aul.Gell. lib. i. cap. 1.
- ↑ Stadium autem inlmc mundi menſura, id potiſſimum intelligum eſt, quod Italicum vacant, pedum 625, nam ſunt prætera et alia longitudine diſcrepantia, ut Olympicum, quod eſt pedum 600, et Pythicumm pedum 100. Cenſorim cap. xiii.
