BOOK VII.] History of Nature. 259 



that Quarter between the Rostra and the Grecostasis. But 

 when the Sun inclined downward from the Column named 

 Moenia, to the Prison, he proclaimed the last Quarter (of the 

 Day). But this observation would serve only on clear Days ; 

 and yet it was so until the first Punic War. Fabius Vestalis 

 writeth, that L. Papyrius Cursor, the Prince, twelve Years 

 before the War with Pyrrhus, to do the Romans a pleasure 

 set up a Sun-dial on the Temple of Quirinus, when it was 

 dedicated, his Father having vowed it before him. But 

 this Author sheweth not either the method of that Dial, or 

 the Workman ; nor yet from whence it was brought, nor in 

 what Writer he found it so written. M. Varro reporteth, 

 that the first Dial was set up in the common Market-place, 

 upon a Column near the Rostra, in the first Punic War, by 

 M. Valerius Messala, the Consul, presently after the taking 

 of Catana, in Sicily ; from whence it was brought, thirty 

 Years after the report of the aforesaid Dial of Papyrius, in 

 the Year of the City 477. And although the Lines of this 

 Dial did not agree with the Hours, yet were the People 

 governed by it for an hundred Years save one, until 

 Q. Martius Philippus, who was Censor, with L. Paulus, 

 set another by it, made more carefully. And this gift, 

 among other things done by the Censor, was highly 

 acceptable to the People. But notwithstanding this, if it 

 were a cloudy Day the Hours were uncertain ; and thus it 



stituted their day ; and the other twelve, from the setting of the sun to 

 its rising, constituted their night. Thus, as the seasons changed, the 

 length of their hours must have varied. In winter the twelve hours of 

 the day were short, and those of the night long : in summer they were 

 the reverse. How then could these hours, of an unequal length, and 

 which daily varied, be measured by an instrument ? I have not been 

 able to discover any method by which this could be done. However, 

 they had two fixed points, namely, mid-day and midnight, which they 

 called the sixth hour. So that a meridian line would always point out 

 the sixth hour, or mid- day." 



That the dial was a very ancient instrument for measuring time 

 appears from the 2d Book of Kings, xx. 11, and Isaiah, xxxviii. 8, 

 where is the first mention of it on record. It probably was invented in 

 Babylonia. Wern. Club. 



