Mile

(μίλιον, the Greek form of the Latin milliarium, from mille, a thousand, Mt 5:41), a Roman measure of 1000 geometrical paces (passus) of five feet each, and therefore equal to 5000 Roman feet (see Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiq. s.v. Milliare). Taking the Roman foot at 11.6496 English inches, the Roman mile would be 1618 English yards, or 142 yards less than the English statute mile (see Penny Cyclopaedia, s.v.). By another calculation, in which the foot is taken at 11.62 inches, the mile would be little more than 1614 yards. The number of Roman miles in a degree of a large circle of the earth is little more than 75 (see Ukert, Geogr. d. Griech. I, 2:75). The most common Latin term for the mile is mille passuum, or only the initials M.P.; sometimes the word passuum is omitted. The Roman mile contained eight Greek stadia (Pliny, 2:21). Hence it is usual with the earlier writers on Biblical geography to translate the Greek "stade" into the English "furlong" in stating the measurements of Eusebius and Jerome, who, like the early itineraries, always reckon by Roman miles. SEE FURLONG. The Talmudists also employed this measure (which they call מַיל, Otho, Lex. Rabb. page 421), but estimate it at 7½ stadia (Baba Mezia, 33:1), as also the Roman historians frequently reckon it, without geographical or mathematical accuracy (Forbiger, Handbuch d. alt. Geogr. 1:555). Mile-stones were set up along the roads constructed by the Romans in Palestine (Reland, Pulaest. page 401 sq.), and to this day they may be seen, here and there, in that country (Robinson, Bib. Res. 2:161, note; 2:306). The mile of the Jews is said to have been of two kinds, long or short, dependent on the length of the pace, which varied in different parts, the long pace being double the length of the short one (Carpzov, Apparat. page 679). SEE METROLOGY.