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Waking up

Questions and follow-up questions if any:

  • How did Romans wake up to be in time for work?
    • Did they have rush-hours?
  • Did they have town-cryers?
    • Was punctuality important at the time?

How did Romans wake up to be in time for work?

How did Romans wake up to be in time for work? Since there were no alarm clocks.

I assume Romans had birds to guide them when to wake up?
So did they listen to them or woke up as soon as the Sun?

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Answer by: toldinstone (Roman Empire -- Greek and Roman Architecture)

Reconstructing the routines of daily life in the Roman world involves pulling together stray references from texts that tell us a great deal about some things, and almost nothing about others. Our sources tell us quite clearly that most Romans woke early - at or before dawn. But they are virtually silent on how they woke.

Roosters, as you suggest, woke some. The second-century author Apuleius has the protagonist of his novel start out of bed when the crowing of the crested company was singing truce to darkness (2.26). In wealthy households, slaves were probably responsible for waking some or all; Trimalchio, a wealthy freedman who appears in a first-century novel, apparently has a slave blow a trumpet to mark every hour of daylight (Petronius, Satyricon 26). In the same work, the hungover guests at a drinking party are roused by a slave with cymbals (22).

The Romans had water clocks, which were used both to limit the length of speeches in the courts and to mark the hours of the watch in army camps. And they were at least aware of alarm clocks. Centuries before, the philosopher Plato had supposedly devised a large water clock that let off a loud noise at dawn (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 174D), and the Alexandrian inventor Ctesibius developed fairly sophisticated water alarm clocks that whistled after a certain amount of time had passed (Vitruvius 9.8.4).

To judge from the lack of references to such clocks in our sources, however, it seems unlikely that they were widely used. Most Romans were probably wakened by the light and rapidly-rising street noise that accompanied dawn - the poet Martial complained I am awakened by the laughter of the passing crowd; and all Rome is at my bed-side. (12.57)

Did they have rush-hours?

Did those, who had to work, have a rush-hour like people of today do? I.e. did they had a kind of 9-5 schedule (who was not a slave).

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Answer by: toldinstone (Roman Empire -- Greek and Roman Architecture)

This also answers the second part of your question. There was a morning "rush hour" in the city of Rome - the hubbub and surge of activity that began with dawn. Since people weren't going to offices, however, this activity continued through much of the day, slackening only in the later afternoon (when many went to the baths), and sinking to a trickle once the sun set.

Where a Roman went would of course depend on his/her status and occupation. Many men, however, started their day by paying court to (one of) their patron(s). This ritual often involved waiting around in some rich guy's atrium for a long while; but if (like so many Roman men) you had no steady source of employment, it was essential to stay connected with someone important enough to secure food, jobs, and favors.

Unless they were wealthy enough to have slaves, Roman women had to accomplish all the time-consuming tasks of running an ancient household; so they might begin their day by walking to the market, working at the loom, or starting on any of a dozen other chores. Women who ran shops or market stalls would of course start their days by preparing for costumers.

Did they have town-cryers?

Would there have been people who's role in the morning would've been something like a town-cryer ; getting people up by shouting that it's time to get up?

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Answer by: toldinstone (Roman Empire -- Greek and Roman Architecture)

I don't know of any passage mentioning someone like that - and in Rome, at least, there was so much street noise that he would have been unnecessary.

Was punctuality important at the time?

As a follow-up question, do we know how important punctuality would have been? Without clocks being common for the average person, it would be difficult to tell exactly when someone is late, so would people of that era have had to get to work for a more unspecific time (such as an hour after dawn)?

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Answer by: toldinstone (Roman Empire -- Greek and Roman Architecture)

The fact that the Romans created so many sundials and (on occasion) sophisticated water clocks suggests that they valued at least the ideal of punctuality. But real punctuality would have been extremely difficult to achieve. The Romans divided the day - that is, the time in which the sun was shining - into 12 hours (whose actual length varied with the season). If you wanted to meet someone in the Forum at, say, the third hour, both you and the person you wanted to meet could tell from sundials approximately what time it was - but unless you were very lucky, one of you would likely be waiting for a while.