Miles to Roman Paces (mi to passus)

1 mile equals 1,087.394595 Roman paces (rounded).

1 mile = 1,087.394595 Roman paces

How to convert miles to Roman paces

To convert miles to Roman paces, multiply the number of miles by 1,087.394595. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply Roman paces by 0.0009196293645 (rounded).

Roman paces = miles × 1,087.394595

Example: 10 miles = 10,873.94595 Roman paces.

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

About these units

Mile (mi)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

5,280 feet or 1,760 yards, exactly 1,609.344 meters. This is the statute (international) mile used on US and UK roads.

A thousand paces gave the mile its name. It descends from the Latin mille passus, the Roman mile, by way of Old English mil and Middle English myle. For centuries after Rome, miles of many lengths coexisted; a sixteenth-century Mercator map, for example, shows small, medium and large Flemish miles on a single scale bar. The English statute mile was fixed by an Act of Parliament under Elizabeth I in 1593, which declared that a mile contains eight furlongs, or 5,280 feet.

The 1959 international yard and pound agreement made that mile exactly 1,609.344 meters. A slightly longer US survey mile, about 1,609.347 meters, lingered in American land surveys and was slated for retirement from 1 January 2023. Today the mile is the road unit of the United Kingdom, the United States, Liberia and Myanmar, along with several territories such as the Bahamas, Belize, Guam and the US Virgin Islands. In Canada it survives chiefly in rail transport and horse racing.

1 mile = 1,609.344 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Mile; Wikipedia: Foot (unit); NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

Roman Pace (passus)

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

Five Roman feet, about 1.48 m. A passus was a full stride, from the lift of one foot to the same foot landing again.

Counting a pace by both feet is the key to the Roman passus. Unlike a single step, it ran from the point where one heel leaves the ground to where that same heel lands again, so it covered two steps, each called a gradus. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa is credited with fixing it at five Roman feet, which comes to about 1.48 m, the figure used here. The exact size depends on the foot, whose surviving measures vary by a few millimeters.

A thousand paces, mille passus, formed the Roman mile of about 1.48 km, and the English word mile descends from that phrase. Milestones along roads such as the Appian Way marked distances in this unit,. The pace also sat in a chain of units: ten feet made a decempeda, and 120 feet made an actus. In imperial terms the passus is a little under five feet.

1 Roman pace = 1.48 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Pace (unit); Wikipedia: Ancient Roman units of measurement

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