It is misleading, surely to talk about horizontal gnomons on roman Berossus-type dials. The only purpos of the metal 'gnomon' is to provide a support for the nodus tip, which is the only part of the 'gnomon' that it used for telling the time and/or date on these dials. The support could come in from any angle - even by convoluted/spiral/twisted or whatever so long as there was a point acting as a nodus at the 'centre' of the dial to cast the shadow correctly.
David Brown
Somerset
UK 

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