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I congratulate warmly Frans Maes on his clear article on the "sundial of Augustus " published on the last issue of The Compendium (September 2005) The
legend of the Augustus sundial,
that was never described as a solar
clock by the ancients, is grown
slowly in the centuries and the imaginative reconstruction of E. Buchner
has contributed to diffuse it everywhere. Now,
finally, its falsity is
proved. As
Plinius wrote, a meridian line was certainly built (for
calendrical, astronomic or astrological purposes) while the existence of a
sundial of huge dimensions, whose
description certainly would not be slipped to the ancient authors, is only an
invention of which no proof exists, as it is clearly shown in the
article.
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