Modii to Liters (modius to L)

1 modius equals 8.733333333 liters (rounded).

1 modius = 8.733333333 liters

How to convert modii to liters

To convert modii to liters, multiply the number of modii by 8.733333333. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply liters by 0.1145038168 (rounded).

liters = modii × 8.733333333

Example: 10 modii = 87.33333333 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 modius varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Modius (modius)

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

Sixteen sextarii, about 8.73 L. The standard Roman dry measure, used for grain.

Grain, not wine, was what the modius measured. It belonged to the Roman dry scale, where it stood at the top of the ordinary series, with the semimodius at half its size and the larger modius castrensis, about 12.93 L, above it. Wikipedia's table gives the plain modius as 8.73 L, the figure used here, and describes it as 2 and two thirds congii or 16 sextarii.

That puts it at one third of an amphora quadrantal, so liquid and dry measures shared a single system built on the cubic Roman foot. Because it is a multiple of the sextarius, the usual uncertainty applies: surviving vessels suggest the sextarius ranged from 500 to 580 mL, which would put the modius between roughly 8.0 and 9.3 L. A bronze modius stamped with a reference to imperial regulation of weights and measures survives, which shows that the state tried to keep the size fixed. Today it is a little under a quarter of a US bushel.

1 modius = 8.733333333 liters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Ancient Roman units of measurement

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

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