TIME-KEEPING IN GREECE AND ROME. 389 



also for the latest epoch iu this history, to which they seem more prop- 

 erly to belong, and will now pass to Rome. 



There is no reason to believe that the Etruscan people, with all their 

 proficiency in certain arts and a vigorous and extensive maritime com- 

 merce, possessed any artificial means of indicating time. If they had, 

 it could hardly have failed to come into use among the liomans, whose 

 relations with them for centuries were close, even if generally hostile. 

 But it was not till a late period, long after Etruria had been crushed 

 under the successive assaults of her northern and southern enemies, 

 that any device of this character was known to the people of Rome. 



Indeed, the condition of society and of the arts in Rome at that era 

 was not such as to require any reckoning of the time of day beyond 

 the observation of sunrise and sunset. In the twelve tables, which 

 date from the middle of the fifth century b. c, noon also is mentioned. 

 But the facts that history has preserved to us show that the Romans of 

 that time were a thoroughly rude and almost barbarous people. It was 

 not till two centuries later than this, in the year of Rome 485 (268 b. 

 c), that silver coinage was first struck. Pliny says that barbers were 

 first introduced about the same time, and that till then the Romans had 

 gone unshorn. Cicero says the arts which had reached some degree of 

 perfection in Etruria were even allowed to retrograde. He says the 

 Romans had some knowledge of arithmetic and land surveying, but 

 they could not improve their calendar, and were not even in condition 

 to erect a common sun-dial. As to the state of commerce and agricult- 

 ure, we are told that in the fourth century of Rome, private enterprise 

 was so inadequate to the provisioning of the city, that state commis- 

 sioners were placed in charge of it. 



It would seem that Rome was at that period a capital, populous in- 

 deed, but without arts or sciences, without industries and without culti- 

 vation. War was the only trade and plunder the only source of public 

 or private revenue. For the civil purposes of such a peojjle the natural 

 divisions of time were all that were necessary. They marked the pe- 

 riods for toil and repose, and that was enough. 



These were a ruder people than those of Athens in the time oC Solon ; 

 but if they had less of culture they had less of tyranny and less of in- 

 testine warfare to contend with at home than had the Oreeks, and they 

 were always reaching out, widening their domain, absorbing neighbor- 

 ing peoples, and making each in its turn add to the strength and glory 

 of their capital. Whatever the art and science of the subdued nations 

 could contribute to the prosperity of Rome, canu>, by the enforced levy 

 of the conqueror. 



The time system of early Rome was, like everything else, of the 

 rudest character. Growing out of their military habits and adai)ted to 

 them, it divided the day and night each into four watches, the periods 

 of which must have been roughly determined by observation of the 

 courses of the sun and stars. In the city, according to Pliny, noon be- 



