Dr. Smith, in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, says, “We think that Ukert has satisfactorily shown an accurate description of a place should be particular to add its astronomical and geometrical relations, explaining carefully its extent, distance, degrees of latitude, and temperature of atmosphere. He says likewise, as the size of the earth has been demonstrated by other writers, we shall take for granted that the Greeks had not different standards of length, but always used the Olympic stadium and the foot corresponding to it. He states that the stadium was equal to 600 Greek, or 625 Roman feet, or to 125 Roman paces, and the Roman mile contained 8 stadia. Hence the stadium contained 606 feet 9 inches, English. This standard prevailed throughout Greece under the name of the Olympic stadium, because it was the exact length of the stadium or foot-race course at Olympia, measured between the pillars at the two extremities of the course.” Still Dr. Smith further observes, “But although the stadium and the foot connected with it were single definite measures throughout Greece, yet we find in the eastern countries, Babylon, Syria, and Egypt, and in some neighbouring Greek states, feet longer than the Olympic, the origin of which is to be explained by the coëxistence, in the Babylonian system, of a _royal_ or _sacred_ and a _common_ foot and cubit, which were so related to one another, that the royal cubit was three finger-breadths longer than the common.” We may conclude that Strabo’s stadium varied considerably, as he sometimes received his distance from personal observation or credible report, and often quoted other writers, and reduced other standards, as the mile, the parasang, and the schœnus, to the stadium. In addition to this, the most ancient mode of reckoning distances was by the number of days required to perform the journey, and this was transferred into stadia by reckoning a certain number of stadia to a day’s journey.[14] Siebenkees and Heeren (De Fontibus Geographicorum Strabonis) have examined the authorities to which Strabo had, or might have had, access, and Groskurd has availed himself of their researches. The following is a short summary of the seventeen books from these sources, but for a more detailed account of their contents the translation itself must be referred to. The first two books may be considered as an independent treatise, and by themselves form a remarkable contrast with the rest of the work, in the manner of treating the subjects, and in the difficulties which they present both of language and matter.