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stadion (unit)

{{short description|Ancient Greek unit of length}}

{{redirect|Stadia (unit of length)|the land surveyor's device|Stadia rod|the cloud video-gaming service|Google Stadia|other uses|Stadion (disambiguation)}}

The stadion (plural stadia, {{langx|grc|{{linktext|στάδιον}}}};{{LSJ|sta/dion|στάδιον|ref}}. latinized as stadium), also anglicized as stade, was an ancient Greek unit of length, consisting of 600 Ancient Greek feet (podes). Its exact length is unknown today; historians estimate it at between 150 m and 210 m.

Calculations

According to Herodotus, one stadium was equal to 600 Greek feet (podes). However, the length of the foot varied in different parts of the Greek world, and the length of the stadion has been the subject of argument and hypothesis for hundreds of years.{{r|engels|len}}

An empirical determination of the length of the stadion was made by Lev Vasilevich Firsov, who compared 81 distances given by Eratosthenes and Strabo with the straight-line distances measured by modern methods, and averaged the results. He obtained a result of about {{convert|157.7|m|yd|sigfig=4}}.{{r|engels}} Various equivalent lengths have been proposed, and some have been named.{{r|gulb}} Among them are:

class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" | Stade name

! colspan="2" | Length (approximate)

! rowspan="2" | Description

! rowspan="2" | Proposed by

metres

!yards

Itinerary

|157 m

|{{convert|157|m|yd|disp=out|sigfig=3}}

|used in measuring the distance of a journey.Hoyle, Fred Astronomy, Rathbone Books Limited, London 1962 LC 62-14108

|Jean Antoine Letronne, 1816{{r|engels}}

Olympic

|192 m{{cite web | title=stade - measurement | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | url=https://www.britannica.com/science/stade-measurement | access-date=2022-06-07}}

|{{convert|192|m|yd|disp=out|sigfig=3}}

|200 Heracles steps

|Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt, 1929{{r|gulb|carl}}

Ptolemaic{{r|cuntz}} or Attic

|185 m

|{{convert|185|m|yd|disp=out|sigfig=3}}

|600 × 308 mm

|Otto Cuntz, 1923;{{r|gulb|cuntz}} D.R. Dicks, 1960{{r|len|dicks}}

Babylonian–Persian

|196 m

|{{convert|196|m|yd|disp=out|sigfig=3}}

|600 × 327 mm

|Lehmann-Haupt, 1929{{r|gulb|carl}}

Phoenician–Egyptian

|209 m

|{{convert|209|m|yd|disp=out|sigfig=3}}

|600 × 349 mm

|Lehmann-Haupt, 1929{{r|gulb|carl}}

Which measure of the stadion is used can affect the interpretation of ancient texts. For example, the error in the calculation of Earth's circumference by Eratosthenes{{cite web |url=http://www.maa.org/publications/periodicals/convergence/eratosthenes-and-the-mystery-of-the-stades-how-long-is-a-stade |title=Eratosthenes and the Mystery of the Stades |access-date=2008-07-29 |last=Walkup |first=Newlyn |year=2005 |work=The MAA Mathematical Sciences Digital Library }} or Posidonius is dependent on which stadion is chosen to be appropriate.

Other uses

From the Middle Ages on, the word stadium has been used as a synonym for the furlong (which is 220 yards, equal to one eighth of a mile), which is of Old English origin.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3XGQNMC-2qUC&q=stade+furlong&pg=PA13 | title=Pausanias's Description of Greece| isbn=9781108047241| last1=Pausanias| date=2012-05-17| publisher=Cambridge University Press}}

See also

References

{{Reflist|refs=

C.F. Lehmann-Haupt (1929) "Stadion"; in August Friedrich von Pauly (ed.), Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Stuttgart: Metzler; cited in: Edward Gulbekian (1987). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00417008#page-1 The Origin and Value of the Stadion Unit used by Eratosthenes in the Third Century BC]. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 37 (4): 359–363. {{doi|10.1007/BF00417008}}. {{subscription required}}.

Otto Cuntz (1923). [https://archive.org/stream/diegeographiedes00ptol#page/n3/mode/2up Die Geographie des Ptolemaeus: Galliae, Germania, Raetia, Noricum, Pannoniae, Illyricum, Italia] (in German). Berlin: Weidmann. Cited by: Edward Gulbekian (1987). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00417008#page-1 The Origin and Value of the Stadion Unit used by Eratosthenes in the Third Century BC]. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 37 (4): 359–363. {{doi|10.1007/BF00417008}}. {{subscription required}}.

D.R. Dicks (1960). The Geographical Fragments of Hipparchus. Edited with an Introduction and Commentary. London: Athlone Press. Cited in: J. L. Berggren, Alexander Jones (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=tNrPCN3qn94C Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters]. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|9780691010427}}.

Donald Engels (1985). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/295030 The Length of Eratosthenes' Stade]. American Journal of Philology 106 (3): 298–311. {{doi|10.2307/295030}} {{subscription required}}.

Edward Gulbekian (1987). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00417008#page-1 The Origin and Value of the Stadion Unit used by Eratosthenes in the Third Century BC]. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 37 (4): 359–363. {{doi|10.1007/BF00417008}}. {{subscription required}}.

J. L. Berggren, Alexander Jones (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=tNrPCN3qn94C Ptolemy's Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters]. Princeton: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|9780691010427}}.

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Category:Obsolete units of measurement

Category:Ancient Greek units of measurement

Category:Units of length

Category:Units of measurement in surveying