Plethron
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Plethron (πλέθρον) is a measurement used in Ancient times, equal to 100 Greek feet (pous). It is roughly the width of a typical athletic running-track, and was used as the standard width and length of a Wrestling square, since wrestling competitions were held on the racing track in early times.
A plethron is given as the size of the wrestling area by Libanius in Orationes Chapter 10.
The plethron continued to be used in the Byzantine Empire and was defined as 100 feet or 40 paces (vema); one square plethron was a stremma.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ V.L. Ménage, Review of Speros Vryonis, Jr. The decline of medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the process of islamization from the eleventh through the fifteenth century, Berkeley, 1971; in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 36:3 (1973), pp. 659-661. at JSTOR (subscription required); see also Erich Schilbach, Byzantinische Metrologie (referenced but not seen)
