The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish hours! Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack my days so

The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish hours! Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack my days so wretchedly into small portions! When I was a boy, my belly was my sundial — one surer, truer, and more exact than any of them. This dial told me when ’twas proper time to go to dinner, when I had aught to eat; But nowadays, why even when I have, I can’t fall-to unless the sun gives leave. The town’s so full of these confounded dials the greatest part of the inhabitants, shrunk up with hunger, crawl along the street. — Plautus (c.254-184 BC) (Originally posted 11 years ago: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7007731#7008338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7007731#7008338>)