RomanArmyTalk

Just wondering, How did people wake up in time for scheduled meeting, work or in the legion to pull guard. Just wondering because the Alarm Clock was not invented in till the mid 19th century.

Felix

You just wake up.....

First, i want to state that the only stupid questions are those which you don't ask.

Back on topic, I don't know, but I can see that if you've 6 beds for 8 man and 2 of them came back from guard duty, the 2 who've to go on duty have to get out of the bed.

And reminds if there are some big problems if you're not awake in time, you'll be. I know from my own experience that I personally NEVER used an alarm clock and always be awake when I need to, so it's possible to live without one, I guess.

In a Roman military camp, somebody is ALWAYS awake, unless Morpheus casts a nasty trick over them.

Guard shifts changed, people knew who was next up for duty, there were various people on patrol in the camp, as well as manning gates and walls, according to Polybius, anyhow, but there is just the habit of getting up at a set time, as already stated. Actual clocks existed, but I doubt they were carried on general maneuvers, as they were generally water clocks, that is, a dish with a certain sized hole will sink in a given amount of time, so time can be specifically measured.

There were probably trumpet calls for time passage and guard shift changes, and a trained ear will make the "get up and get ready" signal an impetus to get off the cot and into the gear. It wouldn't go well with a soldier who missed his turn at guarding the gate, I'd suspect.

I don't know when the sand clock was invented, but it probably was post Roman. Glass wasn't that frequently used for utilitarian purpose, as it was more expensive then than now.

Ave,

Thought I would add my thoughts. Obviously sundials were available, but that didn't carry through the night hours. My experience in Germany leads me to believe they were probably useless most of the time on the northern frontier anyway. So there must have been another method. Then there is the related question of changing guard. My experience was that a duty day was for 24 hours or until dismissed, Guard duty was 2 hours on , 4 off for the same 24 hour period. So if the Legion used a similiar system , there had to be a way to tell when it was time to change the guards out. So if the Tesserarius put out the daily password, was he then also the timekeeper??

More ideas on this ??

Regards from the Balkans, Arminius Primus

Quote:First, i want to state that the only stupid questions are those which you don't ask.

That's not quite true Jurjen, stupid people ask stupid questions...but there aren't any of those here. 8)

I would also think that a roman soldier would naturally wake up at sunrise, or whenever the legion tended to wake up, since they'd be doing it for years and years. For special duties as mentioned, while in camp they'd use one of their clocks...maybe some kind of "clock check" was utilized in order to maintain track of the time.

There's always the water-clock. But as was said above, someone was ALWAYS awake.

Ave,

Good essay on Roman Time Keeping here;

http://www.beaglesoft.com/timehistoryroman.htm

Still doesn't quite answer all the questions though.


Regards from the Balkans,

Arminius Primus

Simple answer:

Clespsydra. Pot having small hole. It was filled with water and timea was measured agianst a number of drops. The pot could be marked.

The watch master could have such a thing and at certain time could wake up the laggards to do their bit :twisted:

Hope it answers your question.

Kind regards

I remember watching something on the history channel that the Romans had basically, candle clocks. The candle would burn at a certain speed and down to a certain point on the candle, so if the candle burned half way down, that'd be like an hour or 2. Not sure if thats true or not!

As already said there would have been someone on the go at all times.
also its possible to "train"oneself to wake up at a certain time..i do it,before i jump into bed i just say to myself "ill get up at x o clock"its yet to leave me down,maybe that might have worked,i dont know.

I remember my own time in the army, when we were outside for a week or so we had nightguards on 2 hour shifts as well. One of the guards would make a final round through the camp about half an hour before the changing of the shifts and wake up the people who would be next.

I guess the Romans would have done it the same way and they probably had a wake up call in the morning with cornicen or something.

A Klepsydra (clepsydra) is an very simple solution.

http://www.sundials.co.uk/leicester/fig07.jpg

http://zeddy.co.nz/Greece/GR9.JPG

But a "water clock" is not necessarily complicated..

Also, things were timed much less precisely than today. Nobody would plan a meeting for 20 minutes past an hour; "after dinner" or "in the morning after I've seen my clients" would be more than sufficient. Similarly, watches were "1/4 the night" not "exactly 150 minutes". Even terms like "hour" depended on the length of the day at that time of year. Its just one of the little cultural differences we have to wrap our heads around in ancient history ...

Quote:they probably had a wake up call in the morning with cornicen or something.

Or maybe the leftover water from the water clock was thrown on the sleepyheads? That would work.