Time and time zones in the Roman Empire

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

Hi all,

it seems there is no single topic yet on RAT that deals with time in the Roman Empire. It stretched through several modern timezones and so I was wondering if there was something like a standard time for whatever reason (maybe religious, propagandistic?). While I don't see an urgent need to have timezones and standard times back then, the matter puzzles me though. So what do you know about it.
Any educated guess is appreciated.

[LCorneliusScaeva]

Hi all,

it seems there is no single topic yet on RAT that deals with time in the Roman Empire. It stretched through several modern timezones and so I was wondering if there was something like a standard time for whatever reason (maybe religious, propagandistic?). While I don't see an urgent need to have timezones and standard times back then, the matter puzzles me though. So what do you know about it.
Any educated guess is appreciated.

There was no standardized time or timezone system or even calendar throughout the Empire. Sure there was a Roman calendar system, but it was not used by everybody everywhere in the Empire. Most cities probably used sundials to mark the daylight hours. The sundials would need to be calibrated for your location on the globe.

Roman days were divided into 24 hours, but not in the same way we do it now. Regardless of how much absolute time passed, the period of time from sunrise to sunset was divided into 12 sections, as was the period from sunset to sunrise. This meant that the length of each hour during the day was different from the length of the hours at night (except at the equinoxes). And each of these changed as you progress through the seasons. Summer daylight hours were longer than winter daylight hours.

Some people, and also the militery, used water clocks to mark the passage of time. Roman and Greek water clocks used water dripping from one container into another container to mark time. The container recieving the drips would steadily accumulate more water over time and something floating in the receiver would rise with the water level and indicate the current time on a scale. Note that these water clocks needed to compensate for the fact that Roman 'hours' were of different lengths depending on day versus night and the day of year. There were other, simpler water clocks used basically as timers to limit the amount of time people spoke during Senate meetings, trials, petitions to the Emperor, etc.

Here's some more links to info on water clocks.

[url:2z2umwvv]http://www.beaglesoft.com/timehistoryroman.htm[/url]

[url:2z2umwvv]http://en.history-of-physics.com/antike/griechenland_wasseruhr.htm[/url]


Here's an interesting book on Roman thought on time:

[url:2z2umwvv]http://www.amazon.com/Caesars-Calendar-Beginnings-Classical-Lectures/dp/0520251199/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218240521&sr=8-1[/url]

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

... much thanks, Jim.

[richsc]

Caesar's Calendar is more than the Roman idea of time, and probably a better view of the ancient concepts of time. The synchronization of time was one of Rome's biggest achievements, particularly with regard to historical events. A rather scholarly book, so it is taking me a while to get through it. Commerce and banking and the calculation of interest rates depended upon a good basis of time, and the Romans' traded across the world. While much of time was religiously based and not temporal, the Roman calendar became a real foundation for the entire culture. Before Rome, time was entirely locally based, and historical events had no relation to each other at all. Very interesting reading.

Remember that time zones depend upon accurate time keeping. England established Greenwich time, so the world had some idea relative to each other, but even in the US, time was not standardized until the railroads mandated it. Rome did not have accurate time keeping, nor for that matter could they travel fast enough to even notice this (another railroad thing), so time zones that the 20th Century and later appreciate did not apply.