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For the ‘royal’ and the ‘ordinary cubit’ cf. F. Hultsch, Metrologie (1882), especially pp. 46, 388. H. illustrates the Oriental measures from the Greek; but to us the process is reversed, as we know the Oriental measures, from measurements of Babylonian bricks and buildings, better than the Greek. The ‘royal cubit’ (which was practically the same as the Egyptian royal cubit, though a fraction longer, ib. p. 552) is calculated at from 532 (or 533) to 525 millimetres; the Greek cubit, therefore, being in the relation of 8 to 9 (the ‘finger’ is 7/10 of an inch), was from 473 to 466.6 millimetres. Stein, however, says the relation is 7 to 8, not 8 to 9, basing this on the length of the Attic ell, i. e. 462 millimetres. The Samian cubit was the same as the Egyptian ell (ii. 168. 1); of this there were two kinds, the ‘royal’, about 527 millimetres (Hultsch, p. 355), the smaller about 450. That the Samian corresponded to the former, i. e. the longer ell, has been finally proved by the measurements at the Samian Heraeum (ib. p. 551).

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