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Joseph Francis Alward
Some Christians1
claim that the ancient Romans counted hours relative to midnight, but nothing
could be further from the truth. There exists in the historical records of ancient
Romans an abundance of evidence that they counted daylight hours relative to
sunrise and nighttime hours relative to sunset, but there is no document from
that time which shows that the Roman's hour was referenced to midnight.
Few things about
ancient Roman history are clearer than that the Romans reckoned daylight hours
relative to sunrise and nighttime hours relative to sunset.
A search of the
internet will confirm this. One may
find hundreds of references to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh hour of the day, or of the night,
but nowhere is to be found a single reference to an hour beyond thirteen, and
that's because at sunset (the twelfth hour) the counting started over for the
nighttime hours.
Absence of
evidence is not evidence of absence?
Not in this case. Events of
historical importance surely took place after 12:00 noon, so if counting hours
relative to midnight actually was ever a Roman practice, as some Christians
claim, then surely one would find, for
example, a 1:00 PM event--"the thirteenth hour" in the literature, or
a 5:00 PM event—"the seventeenth hour." But, no, there are no such hours, and that is clearly because the
method of counting hours relative to midnight was never practiced. The total
absence of the hours thirteen through twenty-four, and the huge number of
examples in ancient writings of hours one through thirteen is almost conclusive
proof that the Romans reckoned daylight hours relative to sunrise, and nighttime
hours relative to sunset, and never reckoned any hours relative to midnight.
In the remainder
of this article I will first provide an overview of the method of reckoning
time in ancient Rome, and then provide several unequivocal examples of
reckoning daylight time relative to sunrise, and nighttime hours relative to
sunset.
Measuring
Daylight Hours in Ancient Rome
The
ancient Romans measured time relative to sunrise and sunset because these were
unambiguous events and quite easily marked.
Thus, if sunrise occurred at 6:00 AM, then the "first hour" of
the day would be from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM, and the twelfth hour of the day would
be from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM, assuming that at this time of the year there were
exactly twelve hours of daylight.2
Here is how Richard Welland, PhD, Latin editor of the Transparent
Language series language translation computer software, explains it:
Beginning in the
3rd century B.C., Roman days were divided into two parts, the daytime and the
nighttime, each with twelve hours. But since those two parts were defined by
sunrise and sunset, which vary according to the season of the year, the
individual hours of daylight were shorter than the hours of darkness in
the winter, and longer in the summer. The hours were counted from sunrise:
e.g., the "second hour" referred to the period between one and two
hours after sunrise. http://www.transparent.com/newsletter/latin/2000/jul_00.htm
Confirmation that daylight hours were measured relative to sunrise is found on
a number of different web pages. Here
is what the Latin literature instructors on the KET distant learning site have
to say about the Roman method of counting daylight hours:
The
sundial enabled the Romans to divide the day into 12 equal parts, or hours. The
hours became a way to mark time and meetings. Courts opened at about the third
hour, for example, and lunch was at midday, the sixth hour. People would go
home to eat a leisurely lunch and take a siesta, returning to work in a few
hours. People in Rome today still leave work at 1:00 and return to work from
4:00 to 7:00. http://www.dl.ket.org/latin3/mores/techno/time/tellingtime.htm
Measuring Nighttime Hours
Hours of the night were measured
relative to sunset, so if the sun set at 5:00 PM our time, then the Roman
"first hour of the night" would begin at 5:00 PM. In summer, the sun might not set until 8:00 PM
our time, so the first hour of that night in Roman time would have begun at
8:00 PM. The following Commentary on
the Pro Roscio Amerino 15-38 confirms this:
Day and night each had 12 hours,
which were longer or shorter according to the season. "After the first hour of the night" would correspond,
in our terms, to after 9:00 PM or later in June, after 5:00 PM or earlier in
December. http://www.uvm.edu/~bsaylor/latin/roscius15-38.html
Water Clocks
Water clocks were filled at
sunrise and used to measure the twelve "hours" of the day, then
emptied and refilled at sunset to measure the twelve "hours" of the
night. Certain Christian apologists
think that because official ("civil") Romans days began at
midnight and ended at midnight, then the hours of the day likewise were counted
from midnight, but this is quite 
false. Rather than reckon hours from midnight to
midnight, hours were reckoned relative to sunrise for the hours of the day, and
to sunset for the hours of the night.
Here is how James Carcopino, author of Daily Life in Ancient Rome,
describes it:
The horologia ex aqua was
built to reset itself, that is, to empty itself afresh for night and day. Hence
a first discrepancy between the civil day, whose twenty-four hours reckoned
from midnight to midnight, and the twenty-four hours of the natural day which
was officially divided into two groups of twelve hours each, twelve of the day
and twelve of the night.
The figure at the right is a diagram of the water clock designed by Ctesibus, a
2nd Century BC Greek Alexandrian inventor.
The practical value of reckoning
daylight hours relative to sunrise, and nighttime hours relative to sunset is
obvious: Sunset and sunrise are easily
observed events. The reason there was
never a time reckoning system based on midnight is that there is no natural
event easily observed which marks the arrival of midnight.
Examples from Ancient Roman Writings
Below I present several examples
of ancient Roman writings which record events at particular "hours"
of the day or night. In interpreting
these writings, I will assume that sunrise occurs at 6:00 AM, and sunset is at
6:00 PM. For the reader's benefit, I
provide in the table the correspondences between our time and the various hours
of the day or night described in the ancient writings.
|
Time |
Hour of Day
|
Time |
Hour of Night |
|
6:00 - 7:00 AM |
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6:00 - 7:00 PM |
|
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7:00 - 8:00 |
|
7:00 - 8:00 |
|
|
8:00 - 9:00 |
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8:00 - 9:00 |
|
|
9:00 - 10:00 |
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10:00 - 11:00 |
|
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10:00 -11:00 |
|
11:00 -
Midnight |
|
|
11:00 - Noon |
|
Midnight
- 1:00 AM |
|
|
Noon - 1:00 PM |
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1:00 -
2:00 |
|
|
1:00 - 2:00 |
|
2:00 -
3:00 |
|
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2:00 - 3:00 |
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3:00 -
4:00 |
|
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3:00 - 4:00 |
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4:00 -
5:00 |
|
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4:00 - 5:00 |
|
5:00 -
6:00 AM |
|
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5:00 - 6:00 |
|
|
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The
following are a few dozen examples of the use of "hours of the day"
and "hours of the night" in the writings and practices of the ancient
Romans.
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"Wills
executed in provincial towns…should be opened and read in the presence of the
witnesses… between the second and the tenth hour of the day." If the
midnight reference was actually in use, wills would be being read at 2:00
AM. It makes much more sense for
wills to be read from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, which are the second and tenth
hours of the day in the sunrise reference system. |
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"A given angle or the sun at this moment marks, Telling across the dial, outside, the hour five." --Satire, Persius http://community.middlebury.edu/~ha...ns/Persius.html |
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"After
January 1 next no one shall drive a wagon along the streets of Rome or along
those streets in the suburbs where there is continuous housing after sunrise
or before the tenth hour of the day."
(Law of Caesar on Municipalities, 44 BC) http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/law_of_caesar.htm The
safety law makes no sense if wagon travel is only restricted only from sunrise
to 10:00 AM in the imagined midnight reference system, for there would be
large numbers of people on the streets from 10:00 AM through 4:00 PM. Restricted hours are obviously from
sunrise to 4:00 PM, as provided for by the method of reckoning hours relative
to sunrise. |
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"I
remember that Asinius Pollio, the great orator, was such a man, whom nothing
detained after the tenth hour: he did not even read letters after that
hour, lest some new cares should arise: but in those two hours he laid
aside the weariness of the whole day. Some rested at midday and
reserved some lighter work for the afternoon. Our ancestors also
forbade any new motion to be made in the senate after the tenth
hour. " http://www.molloy.edu/academic/philosophy/sophia/Seneca/tranquility.htm
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"Accordingly,
having disposed guards here and there along the road, about the tenth hour of
the night, he set out by narrow paths through the woods, to fetch the corn
into the town. But their noise being heard by the sentinels of our camp, and
the scouts which we had sent out, having brought an account of what was going
on, Caninius instantly with the ready-armed cohorts from the nearest turrets
made an attack on the convoy at the break of day." http://alesia.asso.fr/alesia/pg/BellumGallicum/BGUk/BGUK-B8.htm
Scouts
were sent at 4:00 AM, followed by an attack two hours later at sunrise. Note:
if "tenth hour of the night" really were measured relative
to midnight, it would have been 8:00 AM that the guards and scouts were sent
out, and eight o'clock in the morning is surely not "night." |
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"Vitruvius
reckons the hours best adapted for bathing to be from mid-day to about sunset
(v.10). Pliny took his bath at the ninth hour
in summer, and at the eighth in winter (Ep. iii.1,
8); and Martial speaks of taking a bath when fatigued
and weary, at the tenth hour, and even later" (Epig. iii.36
x.70). http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/…
ary/SMIGRA*/Balneae.html |
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"Having
been apprised of the arrival of Crassus by the scouts at about the third
hour, he advances twenty miles that day." Gaius Julius Caesar
"Military Commentaries http://www.sonshi.com/julius_caesar1-5.html
Advance
of twenty miles after the third hour is not likely to have been achieved
after 3:00 AM. The third hour here is
9:00 AM. |
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The
third hour was the ordinary time for Holy Communion, as may be seen from the decree
(falsely) ascribed to Pope Telesphorus (a.d.. 127-138), in the Liber
Pontificalis; "Ut nullus ante horam tertiam sacrificium offere
praesumeret," and many other testimonies. http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-11/footnote/fn21.htm Holy
communion is at 9:00 AM, not 3:00 AM. |
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"Public
officers who attended on several of the Roman magistrates. They summoned the
people to the assemblies, and those who had lawsuits to court; they preserved
order in the assemblies and the courts, and proclaimed the time of the day
when it was the third hour, the sixth hour, and the ninth hour." Court
officers obviously did not call out the time at 3:00 AM, which would be the
third hour in the non-existent midnight reference system. The times were called at 9:00 AM, noon,
and 3:00 PM. |
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"About
two years after the last victory of Belisarius, the emperor returned from a
Thracian journey of health, or business, or devotion. Justinian was afflicted
by a pain in his head; and his private entry countenanced the rumor of his
death. Before the third hour of the day, the bakers' shops were plundered of
their bread, the houses were shut."
Chapter XLIII: Last Victory And Death Of Belisarius, Death Of Justinian.
Part IV. http://nalanda.nitc.ac.in/resources/english/etext-project/history/rome/volume5.chapter21.html Houses
wouldn't be shut because of panic in the street at 3:00 AM, for they already
would have been shut at that hour.
The time was three hours past sunrise, or 9:00 AM. |
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"About sun-rising; and that the first stone of Rome was laid by
[Romulus] the ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, between the second and third
hour." http://www.bookrags.com/books/plivs/PART2.htm Second
and third hours are relative to sunrise. |
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With the
approach of midnight Domitian became so terrified that he jumped out of bed;
and at dawn condemned to death a soothsayer …Presently he asked for the time.
As had been prearranged, his freedmen answered untruthfully: 'The sixth
hour,' because they knew it was the fifth he feared. (Robert Graves' translation) http://explorers.whyte.com/domit.htm
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No
duumvir holding an investigation or conducting a trial in accordance with this
law, unless such trial is by this law bound to be concluded in one day, shall
hold the said investigation or conduct the said trial before the first or
after the eleventh hour of the day. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/charter_of_urso.htm
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And now the
foreign envoys are introduced. The king hears them out, and says little; if a
thing needs more discussion he puts it off, but accelerates matters ripe for
dispatch. The second hour arrives ; he rises from the throne to inspect his
treasure-chamber or stable.
"Measuring Time in Ancient Rome," Richard Welland Crowell,
PhD. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/sidonius1.html King
rises from throne at second hour, which is 2:00 AM in the now discredited midnight
reference system. Actual time is 8:00
AM. |
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Bonded
commitment made to appear by Lucius Marius Hemeris the Kalends [Ides] of next
November at Puteoli in the Forum in
front of the Hordionian Altar of Augustus at the third hour. http://www.unine.ch/antic/RoweRunningTransl.pdf If the third hour were referenced to midnight, then
poor Lucius would have to appear before the judge at 3:00 AM. The third hour is actually the third hour
past sunrise, or 9:00 AM. |
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"The
celebration in the strict sense of the word began at the second hour of the
night of May 31. Sacrifices were offered to the Fates, on altars erected
between the Tarentum and the banks of the Tiber" http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E…*.html Celebration would not begin at 2:00 AM, so the
second hour of the night must have been 8:00 PM. |
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"To-day
I studied from the ninth hour of the night to the second hour of day, after
taking food. I then put on my slippers" http://library.net4u.ro/gutenberg/medma10/apendix.html |
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Next night,
about the fourth hour, Ben-Hur stood on the terrace of the great warehouse
with Esther. http://www.litrix.com/benhur/benhu053.htm Ben-Hur would not
likely have been standing with Esther at 4:00 AM, which is the fourth
hour according to the proposed—but nonexistent--midnight-reference
system. The fourth hour of the night
is measured relative to sunset, or about 6:00 PM. Thus, Ben-Hur was with Esther at 10:00 PM. |
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But when
daylight returned, the conquerors…marched in a dense column upon Hadrianopolis…And
to prevent the ardor of the soldiers from being cooled by delay, the whole
city was blockaded by the fourth hour http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/378adrianople.html |
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"Thereafter,
when the fourth hour in heaven has gathered thirst and the note of the shrill
tree-crickets pierces the copses, by wells or by deep pools I will bid the
flocks drink the wave that runs in troughs of ilex; but in the noonday beats
seek some shady dell" (Roman poet Virgil) |
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But at last,
urged by Decimus Brutus not to disappoint the full meeting, which had for
some time been waiting for him, he went forth almost at the end of the fifth
hour. |
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"The
time for business began with sunrise, and continued to the fifth hour, being
that of dinner, which with them was only a slight repast. From thence to the
seventh hour was a time of repose; a custom which still prevails in Italy.
The eighth hour was employed in bodily exercises; after which they constantly
bathed, and from thence went to supper." Ancient History Sourcebook: Pliny the Younger
(61/62-113 CE): Selected Letters, c 100 CE http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/pliny-letters.html Business
begun at sunrise wouldn't continue to 5:00 AM, which is what the fifth hour in
the imagined midnight reference method of reckoning hours would be. The fifth
hour is 11:00 AM, five hours after sunrise. |
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"While
we were engaged in these discussions as fancy prompted each, appears an envoy
from the cook to warn us that the moment of bodily refreshment is at hand.
And in fact the fifth hour had just elapsed, proving that the man was
punctual, had properly marked the advance of the hours upon the water-clock .
The dinner was short, but abundant"
(Letter of Sidonius to his friend Donidius 461-467 AD) |
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On the
ninth day before the Kalends of February [January 24, 41 A.D.], at about the
seventh hour he hesitated whether or not to get up for luncheon. Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius
(c.69-after 122 CE): De Vita
Caesarum: Caius Caligula The Lives of the Caesars: Caius Caligula), written
c. 110 CE Lunch
seven hours past sunrise, 1:00 PM, not seven hours past midnight, 7:00 AM. |
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"It
was now the eleventh hour and the chariot was still stuck in the ditch
because the chariot driver was not able to move it. The Cornelians thought
that maybe they should spend the night in the inn. It was getting darker
now." Accident on
the Appian Way. |
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"Yet,
though assailed by so many disadvantages, [and] having received many wounds,
they withstood the enemy, and, a great portion of the day being spent, though
they fought from day-break till the eighth hour, they did nothing which was
unworthy of them."
Commentaries: Gallic Wars http://www.sonshi.com/julius_caesar1-5.html |
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At the
third hour, Silanus formed the soldiers into long ranks so that they could
[or "to"] salute Agricola. When they saw [literally: "had
seen"] Agricola entering the camp, they raised a great clamor: |
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Next day, encircling the city from the sea by ships furnished with all
kinds of missiles under the command of Laelius, and sending forward on the
land side two thousand of his strongest men together with the ladder-bearers,
he began the assault at about the third hour. Polybius: The Histories
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"No Jew, my dear Tiberius, ever keeps such strict
fast upon the Sabbath, as I have to-day; for while in the bath, and after the
first hour of the night, I only ate two biscuits, before I began to be rubbed
with oil." Twelve emperors: by Suetonius Life of Augustus
Chapter: 76
Augustus' bath
at the first hour must have been at 6:00 PM, not 1:00 AM. |
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The festival took place
in summer…The solemnities began at the second hour of the night, and the
emperor opened them by the river side with the sacrifice of three lambs to
the Parcae ("Ludi Saeculares") |
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I was writing this on
the 23rd at the ninth hour of the night. Milo already holds the campus. The
candidate Marcellus was snoring thus that I--his neighbor--hear it. Cicero, Letters to Atticus 4.3 |
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Accordingly, having
disposed guards here and there along the road, about the tenth hour of
the night, [Drapes] set out by narrow paths through the woods, to fetch the
corn into the town. But their noise being heard by the sentinels of our camp,
and the scouts which we had sent out, having brought an account of what was
going on, Caninius instantly with the ready-armed cohorts from the nearest
turrets made an attack on the convoy at the break of day.
"Bellum Gallicum" Book 8 50-51 BC |
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At Vipasca, in Lusitania (Portugal), the regulations for the Hadrianic
procurators of the pithead baths include the duty of heating the baths for
women from the first to the end of the seventh hour, and for men from the
eighth hour to the end of the second hour of the night. |
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The first and second hours cause those involved in
the salutatio to rub shoulders, These times are obviously
incompatible with the proposed midnight reference system. |
Footnotes
1. In the Gospel of John, the author's account of
the time of Jesus' crucifixion apparently contradicts Mark's account. John thinks that Jesus wasn't crucified until
after about 12:00 PM noon, while Mark thinks that Jesus was already crucified
three hours earlier, at about 9:00 AM. Here is the evidence:
About the
sixth hour (hektos hora)…they shouted, "Take him away! Take him
away! Crucify him!" (John
19:14-15 NIV)
And it was the third
hour when they crucified Him. (Mark 15:25)
Christian
apologist have tried to make this problem go away by proposing that John was
using what the apologists think was a Roman system of reckoning hours that
refers all hours to midnight, in exactly the same way as time is measured in
modern times:
John wrote his gospel in Ephesus,
the capital of the Roman province of Asia, and therefore in regard to the civil
day he would be likely to employ the Roman reckoning. (Encyclopedia of Bible
Difficulties, by Gleason Archer, page 364.)
Gleason
Archer believes that since John was writing his gospel in a Roman city, he
would have used the Roman custom of reckoning time. Archer believes that since the Roman "civil" day
legally was the second half of night and all of the rest of the day and the
first half of the next night—just as it is in our modern system, he assumed
without evidence that perhaps the Romans counted their "hours" from
midnight. Thus, midnight to 1:00 AM was the Roman first hour, and so on, in
Archer's imagination. In this
system—which was in fact nonexistent, John's "six hour" was really
Archer's 6:00 AM, not noon, and thus there would have been enough time after the
sentencing in John's gospel for Jesus to be at the 9:00 AM crucifixion
described in Mark's gospel.
The
"midnight" reference system is all a figment of Archer's mind, as the
remainder of this article will show.
2. Only twice a year were there exactly twelve hours of daylight,
and twelve hours of darkness: at the
vernal (spring) and autumnal (fall) equinoxes.
In the winter, there was less daylight, and more darkness. On December 22 in Rome, there were only
eight hours and 54 minutes of sunlight, and fifteen hours and six minutes of
darkness. Dividing the eight hours and
54 minutes (534 minutes) by 12, we see that the "hours" of daylight
were only 44.50 minutes long, while the twelve nighttime "hours" each
lasted 75.50 of our minutes. On December 22 in Rome, sunrise was at our 7:33
AM. The following table shows the
twelve hours of the Roman day on December 22 (adapted from data in Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jerome Carcopino):
|
Hour
of the Day |
Time |
|
First |
7:33 (Sunrise) - 8:17 |
|
Second |
8:17 - 9:02 |
|
Third |
9:02 - 9:46 |
|
Fourth |
9:46 - 10:31 |
|
Fifth |
10:31 -
11:15 |
|
Sixth |
11:15 -
12:00 |
|
Seventh |
12:00 -
12:44 |
|
Eighth |
12:44 -
1:29 |
|
Ninth |
1:29 - 2:13 |
|
Tenth |
2:13 - 2:58 |
|
Eleventh |
2:58 - 3:42 |
|
Twelfth |
3:42 - 4:27 (Sunset) |