PARASANGA
PARASANGA (
παρασάγγης). According
to Herodotus, the parasang was the name given by the Persians to a distance
of 30 stades (
παρασάγγας, τοῦς καλέουσι οἱ
Πέρσαι τὰ τριήκοντα στάδια, 6.42). It was never, properly
speaking, a Greek measure, but was simply employed by Greek writers such as
Herodotus and Xenophon, who wrote about distances from one place to another
in Asia, just as Strabo employed the word
μίλιον when describing distances in Italy, and as the Romans, on
the other hand, at times employed the term
στάδιον to describe distances in Greece. The origin of the
measure is not very clear: some have sought to explain it as the distance
traversed by an active walker in an hour of equinoctial time, during which
the sun traverses a distance in the heavens equal to thirty times his own
diameter. According to those metrologists therefore, the Persians simply
borrowed the parasang from the Babylonians. But it is probable that it had a
much more simple and rude origin, and is rather to be compared with the
Gallic
leuga (league)=1 1/2 Roman miles, and the
German
Rasta=2 Roman miles. It will hardly be
maintained that the latter were based on astronomical observations. It is
more reasonable to suppose that the parasang as well as the
leuga and
Rasta were
multiples of some native unit of land measure, such as the length of the
furrow [
MENSURA]. This view is
supported by the fact that the Persians used the parasang as their unit of
measurement when dealing with large tracts of country. (
Hdt. 6.42,.
καὶ τὰς χώρας σφέων
μετρήσας κατὰ παρασάγγας, κ. τ. λ.) The scientific theory
of its origin is also rendered doubtful by the fact that the parasang varied
considerably in extent in different times and places. For instance, Agathias
(2.21), who quotes the testimony of Herodotus and Xenophon to the parasang
being 30 stades, says that the Iberi and Persians in his own time (A.D. 570)
made it only 21 stades. Strabo also states (xi. p. 518) that some writers
reckoned it at 60 stades, others at 40, and others at 30. The evidence of
Pliny is to the same effect, as he complains of the difficulty of giving
accurate statements of distances (
H. N. 6.30). Distances in
Asia are still reckoned in
parasangs (Persian
farsang). Modern travellers variously estimate it at
from 3 1/2 to 4 English miles, which agrees closely with the calculations of
Herodotus.
[
W.RI]
