Roman timekeeping

Okay kiddo, let's talk about how the ancient Romans used to keep track of time.

Back then, they didn't have clocks like we do today, so they had to rely on other methods to know what time it was. They used something called a sundial, which is kind of like a big clock that uses the sun's light to tell time.

The sundial had a big stick that would cast a shadow on a round plate with numbers written around it. As the sun moved across the sky, the shadow would move too, and the Romans could tell what time it was based on where the shadow fell on the dial.

But there was a problem with this method, because the length of a day changes throughout the year. In winter, the days are shorter, and in summer, they are longer. So the Romans came up with a way to divide the day into twelve equal parts, no matter how long or short the day actually was.

They called these parts "horae" and they would start counting them from sunrise. So the first part of the day was called "hora prima" and it lasted from sunrise until one-twelfth of the day had passed. The second part was "hora secunda" and it lasted from one-twelfth until two-twelfths had passed, and so on until the twelfth part, which was "hora duodecima" and ended at sunset.

The Romans also divided the night into twelve parts, which they called "nocturnae", but they didn't use sundials for that. Instead, they used water clocks, which were kind of like hourglasses but with water instead of sand.

So there you go, that's how the ancient Romans kept track of time. They used sundials during the day and water clocks at night, and they divided the day and night into twelve parts each. Pretty neat, huh?