common cubit, the royal foot could be only two digits longer than the common foot.
It ſhould however be remarked, that Pliny, when deſcribing the extent of the circuit of the Walls of Babylon, lays it down as being ſixty miles, which correſponds with the 480 Iiadia of Herodotus, reckoning theſe at eight to a mile, which is very different from Mr. Barré's calculation.
In like manner the city of Nineveh is deſcribed in the book of Jonah as being very great, and about three days journey in circuit, (ὡσεὶ πορείας τριῶν ἡμερῶν. It iſ agreed that 20 m. p. are the allotted meaſure[1] for a day's journey, ſo that the whole amounts to 60 m. p. equal to the 480 ſtadia aſſigned by Diodorus for the circumference of that city.
The promontory of Sunimn is, according to Strabo, 330 ſtadia from Piræus; and, according to Pliny, 42 Roman miles. Now 330 ÷ 8 = 41.25, very near Pliny's calculation, at eight ſtadia to a mile.
Arrian, in the Periplus of the Euxine ſea, ſays, that the diſtance from the Temple of Jupiter Urius to the river Rhebas is 90 ſtadia. This meaſures on the large map of the Propontis about nine Engliſh miles; to which if we add ⅛, for the winding of the road, we ſhall have about 89.87 Olympic ſtadia, almoſt exact to Arrian's
- ↑ Hæc meriſura legitima putabatur ad iter unius diei, ut exjureſconſulto clarum eſt. Sic tam apud Gracos, quam apud veteres Latinos diumum iter viginti millibus paſſuum definiebatur. Salmaſ Plin. Exercitat. p. 351, 352, where this ſubject is largely diſcuſſed.
