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Rome - One of the better ways to get the answer to the above question 2000 years ago in Rome would have been to head over to the large marble paved area (twice the size of the St.Peter's square!) located in the Campus Martius (Field of Mars).
Here, all you would have had to do is look at the ground (a section of the original square in photo 1), provided it was a sunny day, because Augustus (yes him again, first emperor of Rome) decided to build the largest sundial ever. Mind you, his intents and purposes were not exclusively chronological . .
1)He built it with the giant 65 foot obelisk (photo 2) he took as trophy after conquering the entire Egyptian empire in 31 B.C.
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2)He set it up so that on the autumnal equinox (his birthday . . what a coincidence!) the shadow of its tip touched the Ara Pacis (photo 3), the triumphal "Arch of Peace" symbolizing his newly established Pax Romana, euphemism for "There shall now be peace throughout the land because . . . I've conquered everything possible and rule over you all so don't even think of being uppity").
3)He dedicated it to the Sun, symbol of supreme god-given power, and in case the message hadn't sunk in enough he
4) rotated the obelisk slightly so its north face actually faced his family's mausoleum just up the road (photo 3 again) where he would one day be buried.
Slightly different scale, but somewhat like wearing a fancy watch today . . ?
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--contributed by GB (see bio), Editor, Italian Notebook.
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