Amphorae to Liters (amphora to L)

1 amphora equals 26.2 liters exactly.

1 amphora = 26.2 liters

How to convert amphorae to liters

To convert amphorae to liters, multiply the number of amphorae by 26.2. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply liters by 0.03816793893 (rounded).

liters = amphorae × 26.2

Example: 10 amphorae = 262 liters.

Pints, quarts, gallons and fluid ounces differ between the US and the UK. Units are labeled 'US' or 'imperial' to avoid confusion.

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

About these units

Amphora (amphora)

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

The 'amphora quadrantal', defined as one cubic Roman foot (about 26.2 L). The standard Roman liquid measure for wine and oil.

Greek amphoreus, shortened from amphiphoreus, meant carried on both sides, a reference to the two handles of the clay jar that gave the unit its name. The Romans took the word over during the period of Hellenization, and Cato the Younger is the earliest known writer to use it. Amphorae carried wine, olive oil, garum, grain and olives around the Mediterranean, and most stood about 45 cm tall.

As a measure, the Roman amphora is properly the amphora quadrantal, defined as one cubic pes, the Roman foot of roughly 296 mm. Wikipedia's table gives 26.2 L for it, while the text of the same article rounds the cube to about 25.9 L, so the figure used here is 26.2 L and the true value is uncertain by a few percent. It equals 8 congii or 48 sextarii. Another Wikipedia article mentions a wine amphora of about 39 L, which shows that the jar and the legal unit were not always the same size. In modern terms the quadrantal is close to 7 US gallons.

1 amphora = 26.2 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Ancient Roman units of measurement; Wikipedia: Amphora

Liter (L)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One cubic decimeter (1,000 cm³). The everyday metric unit of volume for drinks, fuel and cooking.

The liter was born in revolutionary France. In 1795 it was introduced as a republican unit and defined as one cubic decimeter, while the gram was tied to a cubic centimeter of water. The name comes from the older French litron, itself descended from a Byzantine Greek unit of weight, not volume. A small revision of the decimeter in 1798 left the first liter about 1.000974 of today's cubic decimeter, and in 1879 the international metric authorities adopted the liter with the symbol l.

The liter then took a strange detour. In 1901 it was redefined as the space taken up by one kilogram of pure water at its densest, which made it about 1.000028 cubic decimeters, and that muddled definition lasted until 1964, when it was restored to exactly one cubic decimeter. A capital L was added as an alternative symbol in 1979 because a lowercase l is easy to mistake for the digit 1, and NIST says L is the symbol to use in the United States. A liter of water is close to a kilogram, which is why a one-liter bottle feels like a kilo in the hand.

The liter is the reference unit for volume on this site.

Sources: Wikipedia: Litre; NIST Guide to the SI, Chapter 5: units outside the SI

Related conversions

See all volume units.