What this unit was
Olympic stadion is modelled here as a length standard of the Greek tradition, associated with Olympia during Archaic to Roman-era Olympia representative. The converter represents one stadion as 192.3 m; its basis is derived-from-pous. The matrix carries an indicative uncertainty of ± 0.9 m.
Within that setting, the unit belonged to a working system for survey, building, travel, and the organisation of built space. It should be read with its period, locality, and evidential basis attached, not as a universal value shared by every culture using a similar name.
Evidence of use and sources
The working value is traceable to Nature 144 360. Its record is classified as medium confidence and uses the stated basis rather than an assumed culture-wide constant.
Three directly pertinent excerpts from the supplied library are available.
“The rest of the Measures are founded on known proportions.”
Tables of antient coins, weights, and measures, PDF p. 78. reconstructed proportional systems
“Stadium contain'd 125 Roman Paces, or 625 Feet”
Tables of antient coins, weights, and measures, PDF p. 81. Roman distance relationship
“the trade value of the Attic standard, and ... the coinage value”
Flinders Petrie, Ancient Weights and Measures, PDF p. 31. trade and coin systems must be distinguished
What the unit meant
A stadion was commonly related to six hundred feet, but the foot itself varied. Excavated racecourses therefore provide crucial evidence: the named unit can stay stable as a counting relationship while its modern length changes with the regional standard. Olympia’s longer representative foot produces a stadion around 192.3 m, distinct from the roughly 177 m Attic family used elsewhere.
How this site models it
Use the Olympic rows for questions tied specifically to Olympia or scholarship adopting that standard. Use Attic or another regional option when the evidence points elsewhere. The converter deliberately places identically named Greek units next to one another with region and period in the label, turning a likely source of error into the central lesson of the interface.
What not to infer
The ancient stadium is an archaeological feature, a race distance, and the origin of a unit name. Those meanings overlap without becoming identical. Start and finish arrangements, usable track length, and later alterations complicate a simple tape-measure equation. The representative conversion is a tool for reasoning, not a replacement for the excavation report.
The Stadium at Olympia: the case-study lens
A racecourse where a unit name, a count of feet, and an excavated distance meet. This pairing is a historically bounded investigation, not a claim that one decimal unlocks the whole building.
Open the full The Stadium at Olympia dossier.
Values in the site matrix
| Standard | Representative | Uncertainty | Region | Period | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic pous | 0.3205 m | ±0.0015 m | Olympia | Archaic to Roman-era Olympia representative | medium |
| Olympic stadion | 192.3 m | ±0.9 m | Olympia | Archaic to Roman-era Olympia representative | medium |
Sources
- Smith Dictionary Mensura; basis: stadium survey.
- Nature 144 360; basis: derived from pous.