Length of the Roman foot.Dr, Murdoch[1] is of opinion, that the itinerary foot among the Romans differed from the one in domeitic uſe. But. I ſee no grounds for this ſuppoſition. Columella aſſumes the foot as the origin and foundation of meaſurernents of every kind, either by its multiplications[2], or by its diviſions, and ſpecifies of the former kind, paſſus, actus, climata, jugera, ſtadia, centuriæ, and other ſpaces of greater extent. The foot which he deſcribes muſt therefore have been the itinerary foot.
Vitruvius[3] gives the ſame account of the foot with Columella; as that it contains four palms, or ſixteen digits, and that it is to the cubit in the proportion of four to fix.
We cannot doubt that the foot deſcribed by Vitruvius was the architectural foot, and, as ſuch, the ſame with the one on the monument of Coffutius at Rome. This may be inferred from Greaves's account, as he found the larger ſtones in the pavement of the Pantheon to correſpond exactly with three Coffutian feet, and the ſmaller, with one Coffutian foot and a half. The perſon, to whoſe memory this is thought to have been erected, was by trade a ſculptor, or perhaps more probably a builder, as we may infer from the compaſſes, ſquare, and level, inſcribed on his tomb,
- ↑ Preface to Buſching's Geography.
- ↑ Modus omnis areæ pedali menſura comprehenditur, qui digitorum eſt ſedecim. Pes multiplicatus, in paſſus, et actus, et climata, et jugera, et ſtadia, centuriaſque; mox etiam in majora ſpatia procedit. Paſſus pedes habet quinque, actus minimus, ut ait Marcus Varro, latitudinis pedes quatuor, longitudinis habet pedes centum et viginti. Clima quoquoverſus, pedum eſt ſexaginta; actus quadratus, undique finitus, pcdibus centum et viginti. Columell. lib. v. cap. 1.
- ↑ E cubito enim, cum dempti ſunt palmi duo, reliuquitur pes quatuor palmorum. Palmus autem habet quatuor digitos, ita eſficitur, ut pes habeat ſedecim digitos. Vitruv. lib. iii. cap. I.
