Romans split the daylight into twelve hours, whatever the season, so an hour stretched to about 75 minutes at midsummer and shrank to about 45 at midwinter. Noon always ended the sixth hour. A public sundial was brought from Sicily to Rome in 263 BC, and according to Pliny the Elder it never matched the hours in Rome, yet it was followed for 99 years. And that sixth hour, sexta, gave Spanish its word siesta.
Back Then Daily: everyday life in history, in moving paper.
SOURCES
Roman timekeeping (seasonal hours, sundials and water clocks, the Sicilian sundial of 263 BC, siesta): overview with references
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 7.214 (trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library)
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