Sunday, November 6, 2011

How Far is a League?

I was watching a movie with my daughter called "The Eagle" about the Roman army in England around 200 AD. They used the word "200 leagues" to describe the distance traveled by oxcart while the wounded Roman officer was transported to a safer place to heal from his wounds. So, I wanted to know how far a league is: Here is the best answer I found:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081205152331AAB41mL
begin quote from this webpage.


The English league is 3 statute miles;
The French and Spanish league varies between localities, but is about 2.5 and 4.2 miles respectively.
The metric league is 4 kilometers.

Then there is the nautical league.

A nautical league is 3038 fathoms. There are 6 feet in a fathom

A statute mile contains 5280 feet

A British nautical mile (admiralty mile) contains 6080 feet.

So take your pick end quote.
So, if we take the English League which didn't really exist then we might say it was 3 miles per league or 600 miles in distance he was driven unconscious on an oxcart to his destination  which was a place of safety and Healing in southern England then around 200 AD. However, since the French and Spanish leagues were closer to Rome we might use either of these as well and be possibly just as accurate or not.

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