Polybius\' Measurements

[Bryan]

In Polybius' Histories, Book 6, 23, he gives the measurements of the Roman Scutum. Every translation I see is in feet (2.5 x 4 ft). Since he wrote it in Greek, I am wondering what his original measurements were in and how they were converted. Are the feet based on Imperial measurements or Roman (12 inches vs. 11 in.)?
Thanks.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

The roman foot or Pes Drusianus is 29.6cm.

Or at least, that's what I read in the article about the reconstruction of the Navis Iusoria.

[D B Campbell]

Since he wrote it in Greek, I am wondering what his original measurements were in and how they were converted.

Greek feet!

See here for the text. The Greek foot is a vexed question, not least because many city-states had their own standard foot. It used to be thought that the "Attic foot" (used in Athens) was 30.83cm, but it has more recently been suggested that it was roughly the same as a Roman foot (29.5cm). If you have a ruler in front of you, you'll see that -- either way -- it's pretty close to the modern US/UK foot.