who left this monument of their skill in astronomy : however>the first certain mention of the dial is that noticed in Isaiah ,chap, xxxviii., v. 8, belonging to Ahaz , who commenced hisreign about 741 B. C. Interpreters disagree very muchconcerning the form of this dial; for the Hebrew wordmaaloth, which in the Vulgate is translated horologium andgradus, signifies literally a stair-case; which both St. Cyril ofAlexandria, and St.Jerome , believe was disposed with so muchart, that the sun in its course shewed the hours upon it bythe shadow: others state that this dial was a pillar, erected inthe middle of a smooth pavement, upon which the hours, orrather the different portions of time, were engraved; for it doesnot appear that even long after the reign of Ahaz , the Jews had adopted the method of dividing their time by hours.

The Greeks attribute the invention of the dial to Anaxi­ mander or his scholar , Anaximenes Milesius , who flourishedabout550B.C. Aristophanes, who lived in the time of Socrates ,450 B. C., makes one of his actors ask what the hour is bythe sun-dial.

Pliny informs us that the first sun-dial at Rome was erectednear the temple of Quirinus by Papilius Cursor, the Romangeneral, about 293 B. C.; before which period the Romansmake no mention of any other account of time than the sun’srising and setting. About thirty years after this, MarcusValerius Messala brought another dial from Catena, in Sicily jbeing part of the spoils of that city, which he erected in theForum ; and though not adapted to the latitude of the place,was the only measure of hours the Romans had till about theyear 160 B.C.,when the censor, Marcius Philippus, constructeda regular dial for the meridian of Rome .

Sun-dials were most probably introduced into this countryby the Romans; but the nature of the climate preventedtheir being of any great utility, and the history of them isconsequently but little known.

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