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Review: Time in Antiquity by Robert Hannah

By Jo Marchant

28 January 2009

BEFORE the invention of clocks, what did time mean to people? Time in Antiquity is a fascinating look at how ancient Greeks and Romans marked the seasons and told the time – from checking the length of their shadows to tracking the rising and setting of the stars. The book is packed with technical detail that might put some people off, but peppers his account with lively anecdotes from plays and poems, such as a greedy guest who arrives hours early for dinner when he measures his shadow at dawn instead of dusk.

Hannah’s message is that for the…

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