Kilometers to Roman Stadia (km to stadium)

1 kilometer equals 5.405405405 Roman stadia (rounded).

1 kilometer = 5.405405405 Roman stadia

How to convert kilometers to Roman stadia

To convert kilometers to Roman stadia, multiply the number of kilometers by 5.405405405. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply Roman stadia by 0.185.

Roman stadia = kilometers × 5.405405405

Example: 10 kilometers = 54.05405405 Roman stadia.

Approximate value. Standards for the Roman stadium varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Kilometer (km)

Metric (SI)Current unit

1,000 meters. The standard unit for road distances in most countries.

A name for 1,000 meters took a while to settle. In 1793 France's National Convention made the metre the sole French unit of length, and the first proposed name for the thousand-metre multiple was millaire. Everyday French usage then leaned on the myriametre, 10,000 meters, well into the 1800s. The Netherlands adopted the kilometre in 1817, under the local name mijl, and made it the only official unit of that size in 1867. In 1935 the CIPM dropped the myria- prefix, which left the kilometre as the standard unit for road-scale distances.

Kilo- is the SI prefix for a thousand, and the kilometre is now the preferred unit for land distances in most of the world, with the United States, the United Kingdom and Liberia among those that still use the mile. One kilometre is about 0.621 mile. The main span of Lisbon's 25 de Abril Bridge, at 1.013 km, gives a sense of the scale. Even its pronunciation has been argued over: in 1970 Australia's Metric Conversion Board made stress on the first syllable official, although Prime Minister Gough Whitlam argued for stress on the second. Military slang in several countries calls it a klick.

1 kilometer = 1,000 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Kilometre; Wikipedia: Metric prefix; BIPM: history of the metre

Roman Stadium (stadium)

Ancient RomanHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

125 paces or 625 Roman feet, about 185 m. One eighth of a Roman mile.

Borrowed from the Greek stadion, the Latin stadium named a racecourse length that Romans also used as a route unit. It was defined as 125 paces, or 625 Roman feet, and eight of them made one Roman mile. That puts it at about 185 m, the figure used here, and it is the ancestor of the medieval furlong, itself an eighth of a mile.

The Greek original is far less settled. By Herodotus a stadion was 600 Greek feet, but the foot varied across the Greek world, so historians propose anything from roughly 150 m to 210 m. Itinerary, Olympic, Attic and Persian versions have each been argued for, with figures near 157 m, 192 m, 185 m and 196 m respectively. The Roman value lines up with the Attic estimate rather than the others.

Because the Roman unit is defined through a foot of about 296 mm, any change to that foot changes the stadium too. Surveyors and geographers used the unit for road distances and for scaling the world, and today it survives mostly in the word stadium for a sports venue.

1 Roman stadium = 185 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Roman units of measurement; Wikipedia: Stadion (unit); Wikipedia: Roman mile

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