Thestadion (pluralstadia,Ancient Greek:στάδιον;[1]latinized asstadium; alsoanglicized asstade),was anancient Greek unit oflength, consisting of 600 Ancient Greek feet (podes). There are a range of varieties or understandings of what a stadion was and is; these have been calculated by various historians (of various qualities), and those calculations have varied dramatically (as did perhaps the use and meaning of the term stadion over time in Ancient Greece). Thus, the exact length of one stadion is not known or universally agreed today: historians estimate it at between 150 and 210 m (490 and 690 ft), with perhaps something of a convergence around the 185 metres (607 ft) length of an Attic stade.
According toHerodotus, one stadium was equal to 600Greek 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.[2][3]
Anempirical determination of the length of the stadion was made by Lev Vasilevich Firsov, who compared 81 possibly inaccurate, non-straight-line distances given byEratosthenes andStrabo with the straight-line distances measured by modern methods, andaveraged the results. He obtained a result of about 157.7 metres (172.5 yd).[2] Various comparator lengths, translating the length of a stadion into modern units of length, have been proposed, and some have been named.[4] Among them are:
| Stadion name | Length (approximate) | Description | Proposed by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| metres | yards | |||
| Itinerary | 157 m | 172 yd | used in measuring the distance of a journey.[5] | Jean Antoine Letronne, 1816[2] |
| Olympic | 192 m[6] | 210 yd | 200 Heracles steps | Carl Ferdinand Friedrich Lehmann-Haupt, 1929[4][7] |
| Ptolemaic[8] or Attic | 185 m | 202 yd | 600 × 308 mm | Otto Cuntz, 1923;[4][8] D.R. Dicks, 1960[3][9] |
| Babylonian–Persian | 196 m | 214 yd | 600 × 327 mm | Lehmann-Haupt, 1929[4][7] |
| Phoenician–Egyptian | 209 m | 229 yd | 600 × 349 mm | Lehmann-Haupt, 1929[4][7] |
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[10] orPosidonius is dependent on which stadion is chosen to be appropriate.
From theMiddle Ages on, the wordstadium has been used as a synonym for thefurlong (which is 220 yards, equal to one eighth of amile), which is ofOld English origin.[11]
