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Ancient Roman units of measurement
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The ancient Roman units of measurement were built on the Hellenic system with Egyptian, Hebrew, and Mesopotamian influences. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented.
Length
Modern metrologists have found the Roman foot to be of the Nippur cubit.
Notes
- From late Antiquity the Roman foot was sometimes divided into unciae comprising 12 equal parts.
The ancient digit measure, however, largely dominated before the beginning of the Middle Ages. - The value of the historical Roman foot scientifically obtained through modern statistical methods is 296.2 mm ± 0.5 mm, or about (296.2 ± 0.17%) mm (cf.
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The ancient Roman units of measurement were built on the Hellenic system with Egyptian, Hebrew, and Mesopotamian influences. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented.
Length
Modern metrologists have found the Roman foot to be of the Nippur cubit.
Notes
- From late Antiquity the Roman foot was sometimes divided into unciae comprising 12 equal parts.
The ancient digit measure, however, largely dominated before the beginning of the Middle Ages. - The value of the historical Roman foot scientifically obtained through modern statistical methods is 296.2 mm ± 0.5 mm, or about (296.2 ± 0.17%) mm (cf. Rottländer, Tübingen, Germany). The table above is based on this value, but rounded to the millimetre precision for the foot.
- The widely accepted ratio between the Roman foot and the English foot is 36:35. That is, 36 Roman feet to 35 English feet, making the Roman foot slightly shorter than its modern equivalent. The latter one is 16/28 Mesopotamian cubit and the ratio between this one and the Roman cubit is 20:24. If the present English foot is taken as for reference, the Roman foot should be 296 1/3 mm or approximately 11.65 English inches. That is within the margin obtained by R.C.A. Rottländer (see references).
- A Roman foot can be visualised as being approximately equal to the height of an A4 sheet of paper(297 mm). This comparison, although descriptive, is +0.27% out of the range given above.
Area
The Roman acre is the squared Roman arpent, 120 pedes by 120 pedes. This equals 14 400 square feet or about 0.126 hectares.
The Romans also had a unit of area called a quinaria, which was used to measure the cross-sectional area of pipes. One quinaria was considered to be roughly 4.2 cm².
Volume
Liquid measures
The Roman jar, so-called "amphora quadrantal" is the cubic foot. The congius is half-a-foot cubed. The Roman sester is the sixth of a congius.
Dry measures
Like the jar, the Roman bushel or "quadrantal" is one cubic foot. It is almost 26.027 litres. One-third of a quandrantal is a Roman peck.
Mass and coins
The Roman pound is exactly three quarters of the Greek mine.
Thus the Greek and Roman drachm is related by the ratio 32 to 25.
One and a half ounces was called by Romans "sescuncia". Some of these nouns were used to designate Roman bronze coins.
Time
The Julian calendar was introduced in 45 BC replacing the earlier Roman calendar. In the Julian calendar, an ordinary year is 365 days long, a leap year is 366 days long, and every fourth year is a leap year. The Gregorian calendar differs from the Julian calendar in that it skips three leap years every four centuries to more closely approximate the length of the tropical year.
See also
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