First noise control ordinance

The first noise control ordinance was a provision in the Law of Caesar on Municipalities, which was drafted by Julius Caesar shortly before his death in 44 bce. The 14th provision of this law (which survives only in fragments) specifically forbade wagon traffic "after sunrise or before the tenth hour of the day" in areas where people lived.

The full text of this provision is as follows:

"After January 1 next no one shall drive a wagon along the streets of Rome or along those streets in the suburbs where there is continuous housing after sunrise or before the tenth hour of the day, except whatever will be proper' for the transportation and the importation of material for building temples of the immortal gods, or for public works, or for removing from the city rubbish from those buildings for whose demolition public contracts have been let. For these purposes permission shall be granted by this law to specified persons to drive wagons for the reasons stated."

Some accounts mention an older law, supposedly passed in the Greek city of Sybaris in the 6th century BCE. This law banned tinsmiths, potters and roosters from inside the city walls because of their excessive noise. This law is only known, however, from the writings of Timaeus, Phylarchus and Aristotle – all of whom were writing several centuries later, and mention the law as part of a discussion that used Sybaris as a semi-legendary example of decadence and sensuality.