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OF THE GREEK STADIUM.
165
oracle. But this is all a conjecture of his own. The Pythic ſtadium never could have been in general uſe among the Romans, as it is never, as far as I can find, noticed, or even named, by any other Writer than Cenſorinus, even by thoſe who treat profeſſedly of the menſuration of diſtances. It ſeems probable that it was a local meaſure only, perhaps of the Gymnaſium[1] belonging to the place, and not in uſe elſewhere. But let us examine his arguments.
Argument from the words of Theophraſtus, as tranſlated.He begins with ſaying, that Pliny, tranſlating a paſſage from Theophraſtus, renders the words τρεῖς καὶ δέκα ὀργυιῶν, by centum triginta pedum; and as the words ſo applied ſignify that each ὀργυιὰ, or fathom, contains ten feet, which is four feet above the length aſſigned by Herodotus, it follows, that the fathom in the time of Pliny was as five to three to that uſed in the time of Herodotus; and from thence infers, that the ſtadium of Pliny exceeded that of Herodotus in the ſame proportion. But, ſuppoſing the reading to be genuine, all that I can infer from it is, that thirteen fathoms in the time of Theophraſtus were, equal to 130 feet in the time of Pliny; and of courſe, that the fathom was increaſed in the proportion of five to three from the time of Herodotus to that of Theophraſtus, a thing difficult to conceive, as the interval was no more than 137 years. But this no ways concerns Pliny's calculation of the length of the ſtadium, which he never reckons by fathoms, but by paces and feet; and ſays poſitively, that a ſtadium- ↑ The Pythian games were celebrated at or Cirrha, in the neighbourhood of Delphi, where, as it appears from Paufanias and there was a horſe-courſe (Ἱππὀδρομος) and a ſtadium.
Πυθοῖ τε γυμνὸν ἐπὶ
Στάδιον καταβάντες ἤλεγξαν
Ἑλλανίδα ϛρατιὰν ὠκύτα-
τι. Pindar. Pyth. Od. xi. verſ 73.See alſo Pauſan. Phocic. p. 893. Edit. Kühn.
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