Roman Numerals
The Romans were active in trade and commerce, and from the time of learning to write they needed a way to indicate numbers. The system they developed lasted many centuries, and still sees some specialized use today.
The big differences between Roman and Arabic numerals (the ones we use today) are that Romans didn't have a symbol for zero, and that numeral placement within a number can sometimes indicate subtraction rather than addition.
| Roman Numerals |
1 | I |
2 | II |
3 | III |
4 | IV |
5 | V |
6 | VI |
7 | VII |
8 | VIII |
9 | IX |
10 | X |
11 | XI |
12 | XII |
13 | XIII |
14 | XIV |
15 | XV |
16 | XVI |
17 | XVII |
18 | XVIII |
19 | XIX |
20 | XX |
30 | XXX |
40 | XL |
50 | L |
60 | LX |
70 | LXX |
80 | LXXX |
90 | XC |
100 | C |
200 | CC |
300 | CCC |
400 | CD |
500 | D |
600 | DC |
700 | DCC |
800 | DCCC |
900 | CM |
1000 | M |
2000 | MM |
3000 | MMM |
4000 | MMMM |
Larger numbers were indicated by putting a horizontal line over the relevant number, which multiplied it's value by 1000. Hence 5000 would be represented by a V with a line above it, and so on.
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