PASSUS
PASSUS (from
pando), a measure of length, which
consisted of five Roman feet. (
Col. 5.1;
Vitr. 10.14.) [
MENSURA] The
passus was
not the single step (
gradus), but the double
step; or, more exactly, it was not the distance from heel to heel, when the
feet were at their utmost ordinary extension, but the distance from the
point which the heel leaves to that in which it is set down. The
mille passuum, or thousand paces, was the common
name of the Roman mile. [
MILLIARE] In connecting the Greek and Roman measures, the word
passus was sometimes applied to the
extension of the arms,--that> is, the Greek
ὀργυιά, which, however, differed from
the true
passus by half a foot; and,
conversely, the
gradus was called by Greek
writers
βῆμα, or
τὸ
βῆμα τὸ ἁπλοῦν, and the
passus
τὸ βῆμα τὸ διπλοῦν.
[
P.S]
