Roman League (leuga)

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

One and a half Roman miles (7,500 Roman feet), about 2.22 km. Used in Gaul and later across the empire for longer distances.

1 Roman league = 2,220 meters (approximately).

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

About the Roman league

Gaul, not Rome, gave this unit its name. The Latin leuga or leuca came from a Celtic measure of the Gauls that the Romans adopted, and it is the ancestor of the later European league. It may originally have approximated the distance a person could walk in an hour, though that is a suggestion rather than a documented definition.

In Roman terms it was fixed at one and a half Roman miles, or 7,500 Roman feet, which comes to about 2.22 km. Under Septimius Severus this Gallo-Roman league replaced the mile as the official road distance in the Gallic and Germanic provinces. Even so, its practical length varied by region and period, so 2,220 m is a convention based on the 296 mm foot rather than a measured constant.

Later leagues strayed far from the Roman original. Medieval and later values ran from about 2.2 km up to nearly 8 km, with the English league taken as three miles, the Spanish common league near 5.57 km, and a French metric lieue set at exactly 4 km in 1812. No country officially uses it now, though Jules Verne's famous title keeps the word familiar.

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

Roman League conversion chart

1 Roman league expressed in every other length unit:

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