Roman foot - how do we know?

[triarius354]

What are the basis of our konwledge of what exactly was the "Roman foot"? I know that we haw few reliefs like that form Salamis, whit attic measures, but as far as I know, (correct me if I missed something) nothing like this exists for the Roman period. So, how do we know, with such precision, that Roman foot is exactly 0,296m? Is it deducted from Strabo 7.7.4 and his description of Via Egnatia ? Maybe someone knows about publications (citing sources) concerning this question- any help welcomed.
If anyone has Teubner’s edition of Strabo, I will be very grateful for posting this fragment; unfortunately Loeb translation contains some mistakes, like for example 'stades' instead of 'miles' in one of the crucial sentences.

[sulla felix]

CV Walthew produced some good articles in Britannia on the Pes Monetalis and Pes Drusianus - two different Roman measurement standards. Might be useful to look for those.

[D B Campbell]

Friedrich Hultsch (Griechische und römische Metrologie, 1862) did a full survey and came up with the "correct" values for ancient measures.

[D B Campbell]

P.S.

If anyone has Teubner’s edition of Strabo, I will be very grateful for posting this fragment; unfortunately Loeb translation contains some mistakes, like for example 'stades' instead of 'miles' in one of the crucial sentences.

If you're interested in Strabo, you'll be interested in Sarah Pothecary's web site.