Topic summary
Decempeda
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Pertica (unit).
Ancient Rome
In the Ancient Rome, pertica, also called decempeda, was a unit of length, usually equal to 10 Roman feet (pedes), or approximately 2.96 meters. The variants of pertica contained 12 and 15 pedes. Isidore of Seville (per Codex Gudianus) states that sometimes a pertica of 10, 12, 15, or 17 pedes was used by agrimensores (Roman land surveyors) to accommodate the richness of the soil and approximately even the yield per unit area. Kidson highlights the near-perfect match between the pertica of 17 pedes and the English version of the perch.