The stadion, Latinized as stadium and anglicized as stade, is an ancient Greek unit of length. According to Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...

, one stade is equal to 600 feet

Pous

The pous was a unit of length used through much of the Iron Age in Europe and the Ancient Near East.A pous is a Greek foot. One stadion is always 600 podes,...

. However, there were several different lengths of “feet”, depending on the country of origin.

Stade name	Length (approximate)	Description
Itinerary	157 m	used in measuring the distance of a journey.
Olympic	176 m	600 × 294 mm
Attic/Italic	185 m	600 × 308 mm
Babylonian-Persian	196 m	600 × 327 mm
Phoenician-Egyptian	209 m	600 × 349 mm

Which measure of the stadia is used can affect the interpretation of ancient texts. For example, the error in the calculation of the size of the Earth by Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes of Cyrene was a Greek mathematician, poet, athlete, geographer, astronomer, and music theorist.He was the first person to use the word "geography" and invented the discipline of geography as we understand it...

 or Posidonius

Posidonius

Posidonius "of Apameia" or "of Rhodes" , was a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, Syria. He was acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age...

 is dependent on which stade is chosen to be appropriate.

See also

• Ancient Egyptian units of measurement
  Ancient Egyptian units of measurement
  -Length:Units of length date back to at least the early dynastic period. In the Palermo stone for instance the level of the Nile river is recorded. During the reign of Pharaoh Djer the height of the river Nile was given as measuring 6 cubits and 1 palm...
  
  
• Ancient Greek units of measurement#Length
• Stadia (disambiguation)
• Stadium (disambiguation)