422 
mantis régulated their time by it for 
the fpace of ninety-nine years, when 
Q. Marcus Philippus, who was cen- 
for with L. Paulus, caufed another 
dial, conftruéted for the latitude of 
Rome, to be ereéted near the old 
one. Butasafun-dial did not ferve 
in cloudy weather, Scipio Natfica, 
five years after, remedied this defeé, 
by introducing a method of divid- 
ing the night.as well as the day in- 
to hours, by means of a water ma- 
chine, a clejfidra, which Pliny calls 
an Aorolozium. 
I do not sttdleedd conceive how a 
fun-dial, or any other inftrument, 
could point out the various hours, 
as time was computed by the anci- 
ent Romans. The time the earth 
takesto revolve once round fts axis, 
or the fpace between the rifing of 
the fun till its next rifing, which 
makes a day and a night, divid- 
ed into twenty - four equal parts, 
we'call hours. Now, the Romans 
divided the day and the night into 
twenty-four hours. Twelve of 
thefe, from the rifing of the fun to 
jis fetting, conftituted their day ; 
and the other twelve, from the fet- 
ting of the fun to its rifing, contfti- 
tuted their night. Thus as ‘he fea- 
fons changed, the length of their 
hours muft have varied. In winter 
the twelve hours of the. day were 
fhort, and thofe of the night long: 
in fummer they were. the reverte. 
How then could thefe hours, of an 
Ge To reckon time from the fetting of the fun, was avery ancient cultom: 
“ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1791: 
unequal length, and which daily 
varied, be meafurec by an inftru- 
ment? I have not been able to 
difcover any method by which this 
could be done. However, they had 
two fixed points, viz. mid-day and 
mid-night, which they called the 
fixth hour: fo that a meridian line 
would always point out the fixth 
hour, or mid- -day. 
Neither have I been able to 
difcover when the modern Romans 
changed this method of computing 
time. . In the courfe of the day and 
night they reckon twenty - four 
hours, which are all of an equal 
length in every feafon of the year. 
Noinconvenience can arife in reck- 
oning twenty-four hours in place 
of feelve and twelve, as we do. 
Perhaps fo far the modern Roman 
meihod is preferable to ours.; But 
the difficulty is, that they donot 
begin to reckon their hours from a 
fixed point, viz. from mid-day, when 
the fun croffes the fame meridian 
line every day in the year. . Thus 
they call halfan hour after fun-fet 
the twenty-fourth hour; and an 
hour and a half afier fun-fet the 
firft hour, or one o’clock. * Hence 
the nominal hour \of mid- -day con- 
ftantly changes with them ;, in June 
it 1s called fixteen, and,in ‘Decem- 
ber nineteen o >cloek. To regulate, 
therefore, a time - piece by this 
method of computing, it muft be 
daily altered, ; 
it was 
practifed particularly by the Germans and Gauls. It feems to be conneéted with the 
ideas Which eftablith the exiftence of a chaos or night, before the world or day. 
See ‘* Recherches fur l’Origine et les So ae des Arts de la ies par re d’Han- 
kerville.” Lor, c. 2, pl'r31. 
et yea wah wey fog 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
