Definition:Historic Measures/Length/Leuca/Historical Note
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Historical Note on Leuca
The leuca was defined as $1500$ paces, which itself was a double step, and is something like about $5$ feet.
Thus a leuca was about one (statute) mile and a half.
Compare this with the Roman mille passuum, which is literally $1000$ paces.
The word is similar to league, which in its modern definition is $3$ (statute) miles.
Sources
- Mar. 1992: John Hadley/2 and David Singmaster: Problems to Sharpen the Young (Math. Gazette Vol. 76, no. 475: pp. 102 – 126) www.jstor.org/stable/3620384