Plethron (, plural ''plethra'') is an ancient unit of Greek measurement equal to 97 to 100

Greek feet The pous ( podes; , ''poús'') or Greek foot ( feet) was a Greek unit of length of approximately 300mm or 12 inches. It had various subdivisions whose lengths varied by place and over time. 100 podes made up one plethron, 600 podes made ...

(ποῦς, ''pous''; c. 30 centimeters), although the measures for plethra may have varied from

polis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

to polis. This was roughly the width of a typical ancient Greek athletic running-track. A plethron could also be used as a unit of measured area, and reference to the unit in defining the size of a wrestling area is made by

Libanius Libanius (; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a critical source of history of the Greek ...

, '' Orationes'', Chapter 10. A square plethron of c. 30 by 30 meters was used as the standard dimensions of a

Greek wrestling Greek wrestling (), also known as Ancient Greek wrestling and Pále (πάλη), was the most popular organized sport in Ancient Greece. A point was scored when one player touched the ground with his back, hip or shoulder, or conceding defeat due ...

square, since such competitions were held within the racing track in ancient Greece. In other connotations, it functioned as the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

, and varied in size to accommodate the amount of land a team of oxen could plow in a day. The plethron continued to be used in the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

, where its variant uses were ultimately codified to refer to an area defined by sides of 100 feet or 40 paces (βῆμα, bema). See also Schilbach, Erich (date not provided) ''Byzantinische Metrologie''. Ultimately, the unit came to be known as the "

stremma The stremma ( stremmata; , ''strémma'') is unit of land area used mainly in Greece and Cyprus, equal to 1,000 square metres or approximately ¼ acre. History The ancient Greek equivalent was the square plethron, which served as the Greeks' for ...

", which continues as a metric unit in modern Greece.

See also

References

Further reading