Page:Arrian's Voyage Round the Euxine Sea Translated.djvu/148

Proption between the Greek and roman foot;

Having thus, I hope, ſettled the length of the Roman, it remains to ſpeak of the Greek foot, and the proportion which theſe bear to one another.

This is computed by Greaves to be in the ratio of 25 to 24, the Greek foot exceeding the Roman in that proportion, which is the ſame within a very minute fractional part with that of 1007.29^[1] to 967; and this proportion has been adopted by Arbuthnot, and indeed, with an almoſt imperceptible difference, by Dr. Reinhold Forſter.

how discoverable Our knowledge of this proportion is deduced from V

1 . The difference of number between the Greek and the Roman feet, ſaid to be contained in the Radium, there being 600 Greek feet, as we have already ſeen, and 025 Roman feet, which, if we ſuppoſe the ſtadium to be of an equal length in both computations, makes the Greek foot to be longer than the Roman, in the ratio of 25 to 24.

2. The paſſage -of Polybius cited by Strabo, and mentioned above, which ſeems to give the ſame proportion.

3. The proportion of the Philxterian foot, which is deſcribed to be 1/600 part of a Radium, and appears to have been the Greek foot, and was, as Salmaſius^[2] ſays it down 1/14 part longer than the Roman foot, or pes monetalis.

4. From

1. 25:24::100.29: 966.9984.
2. Sic vigelima quartz parte major erat pes Græcus et Phi|ſterius, Romano, ſive monetarli. Salmali Plin. Exercitat.