{"id":9318,"date":"2023-11-21T13:35:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T12:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learnancientrome.com\/?p=9318"},"modified":"2023-11-21T13:35:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T12:35:10","slug":"when-was-the-fifth-hour-in-ancient-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnancientrome.com\/when-was-the-fifth-hour-in-ancient-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"When Was The Fifth Hour In Ancient Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The concept of hours, and more particularly the fifth hour in ancient Rome came from the Egyptians who had been using such a time-measurement system for many centuries prior. With such a long tradition, it is hardly surprising that the Romans adopted it for themselves. It was not, however, an exact science and the hours of the day were determined by the position of the sun in the sky.<\/p>\n

The fifth hour in ancient Rome usually corresponded, when daylight saving time was not in effect, to today’s 10am. This was because even though the day was divided into twelve hours, the hours were not of equal length. This was because, in the days before clocks, the length of each hour depended on where in the sky the sun was at any given time of the day.<\/p>\n

With the invention of the water clock, however, a more accurate measure of time became available which led to the concept of equinoctial hours. These were longer hours in the summer and shorter hours in the winter. This meant that days were the same length throughout the year and the fifth hour in ancient Rome meant the same thing no matter what time of the year it was.<\/p>\n

Today, we have become used to the idea of timekeeping being constant throughout the year and, for this reason, it can be hard to understand that the Romans did not have this same sense of accuracy. Even though the fifth hour in ancient Rome had some consistency depending on the time of the year, it still did not have the precision of the modern day clock and in some cases, the fifth hour could span a wider arc of time across any given day.<\/p>\n