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.

1 Roman stadium = 185 meters (approximately).

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 the Roman stadium

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.

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

Roman Stadium conversion chart

1 Roman stadium expressed in every other length unit:

More Ancient Roman units

• Roman inch (uncia) (length)
• Roman foot (length)
• Roman cubit (length)
• Roman pace (length)
• Roman mile (length)
• Roman league (length)
• Roman pound (libra) (weight & mass)
• Roman ounce (uncia) (weight & mass)
• cyathus (volume)
• sextarius (volume)
• congius (volume)
• modius (volume)
• amphora (volume)
• iugerum (area)
• lustrum (time)
• indiction (time)

All Ancient Roman units

Browse all length units.