ON THE 
RECKONING OF TIME 
AMONG THE ROMANS.* 
I. The Roman Ray. 
The civil day, with the Romans, as with us, extended from midnight to midnight, so that two persons whose birth 
fell between these two limits were considered as born on the same day. But in the division of time by hours, we 
do not find the same agreement between their method and our own. For the hours, with us, run on in one course 
from midnight to noon, and again from noon to midnight, and, making no account of the fluctuating duration of the 
natural day and night, that is, the day and night as bounded by sunrise and sunset, are of the same length the year 
through. The Romans, on the contrary, divided the natural day and the natural night into twelve hours each ; the 
first hour of the day beginning with sunrise, and the first hour of the night from sunset. Accordingly, as the 
summer days are longer than winter days, the summer day-hours must have been in the same proportion longer 
than those of winter, and, for a similar reason, the summer night-hours shorter than those of winter. Suppose 
then, we learn that an event took place at a certain Roman hour of the day or night; in only two cases can we, 
without further data, reduce the time to our hours. The Roman midday and midnight, which fall at the close of the 
sixth hour of day and of night, are our midday and midnight, since these are natural, not civil, points of time. In all 
other cases, we need to be informed also of the length of the day. Now this depends upon the latitude of the 
place and the time of the year. When these are given, the length of the day may be determined by a mathe¬ 
matical computation. It is common however to begin the day, on a rough estimate,' at six o’clock; but this can 
be correct only at the equinoxes, and at the solstices is far out of the way. The subjoined table, calculated for the 
latitude of Rome (41° 54’), may be of some use in the reduction of Roman time to ours. It takes the year 45 
B. C., the first of the reformed calendar of Julius Csesar, and gives the length of the Roman day for the eight prin¬ 
cipal points of the sun’s course, reduced to our uniform hours:— 
Places of the Sun. 
Days of the Tear. 
Length of the Day. 
Sunrise. 
Sunset. 
Length Oj 
f a Roman Hour. 
© 
o 
** 
23 December. 
8h. 54m. 
7h. 33m. 
4h. 27m. 
Oh. 
44 l-2m. 
15° t* 
6 February. 
9 
50 
7 
5 
4 55 
0 
49 1-6 
0° qp 
23 March. 
12 
6 
6 
1 
i5° « 
9 May. 
14 
10 
4 
55 
7 5 
1 
10 5-6 
0° 5Zo 
25 June. 
15 
6 
4 
27 
7 33 
1 
15 1-2 
is 0 a 
10 August. 
14 
10 
4 
55 
7 5 
1 
10 5-6 
0° rCh 
25 September. 
12 
6 
6 
1 
15° nj 
9 November. 
9 
50 
7 
5 
4 55 
0 
49 1-6 
we would know, 
for instance, when 
the Romans supped 
on 
the longest day, supposing this to 
> take place at the 
beginning of the ninth hour (see Martial. 4, 8.), we have, according to the foregoing table, 8 Roman hours equal 
to lOh. 4m. Since on that day the sun rose at 4h. 27m., the ninth Roman hour commenced at 2h. 31m. P. M. 
On the shortest day, it began at lh. 29m. P. M. 
In camp, the night was divided into four watches, of three (Roman) hours each. The second accordingly closed 
at midnight. 
II. The Roman Month and Year. 
It is well known that Julius Csesar reformed the calendar, and gave it the shape which, with slight modifications, 
it still retains. It may be well, however, before giving an account of the Julian year, to say a little of the yeai 
‘Abridged from Ideler’s Handbuch der mathematischen und technisehen Chronologie, 2 Band 6 Abschn. Zeitrcchnung der Roomer 
129 4 R 
