Roman numerals

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The system of Roman numerals is a numeral system originating in ancient Rome, adapted from Etruscan
numerals. The system used in classical antiquity was slightly modified in the Middle Ages to produce the
system we use today. It is based on certain letters which are given values as numerals.

Roman numerals are commonly used today in numbered lists (in outline format), clockfaces, pages
preceding the main body of a book, chord triads in music analysis, the numbering of movie sequels, book
publication dates, successive political leaders or children with identical names, and the numbering of some
sport events, such as the Olympic Games or the Super Bowls.

Symbols

Roman numerals use a basic set of seven symbols:

Symbol Value

I or i 1 or one (unus)

V or v 5 or five (quinque)

X or x 10 or ten (decem)

L or l 50 or fifty

C or c 100 or one hundred (centum)

D or d 500 or five hundred

M or m 1000 or one thousand (mille)

Multiple symbols may be combined to produce numbers in between these values, subject to certain rules on
repetition. In cases where it may be shorter, it is sometimes allowable to place a smaller symbol before a
larger value, so that, for example, one may write IV or iv for four. Again, for the numbers not assigned a
specific symbol, the above given symbols are combined:

 II or ii for two
 III or iii for three. The final character is sometimes "j" instead of "i", often in medical
prescriptions.
 IV, iv, IIII or iiii for four
 VI or vi for six
 VII or vii for seven
 VIII or viii for eight
 IX or ix for nine

For large numbers (five thousand and above), a bar is placed above a base numeral to indicate
multiplication by 1000:

 V for five thousand

 X for ten thousand
 L for fifty thousand
 C for one hundred thousand
 D for five hundred thousand
 M for one million
For very large numbers (five million and above), there is no standard format, although sometimes a double
bar or underline is used to indicate multiplication by 1,000,000. That means an underline X (X) is ten
million.

[edit] Origins

Although the Roman numerals are now written with letters of the Roman alphabet, they were originally
separate symbols. The Etruscans, for example, used I Λ X ⋔ 8 ⊕ for I V X L C M.

They appear to derive from notches on tally sticks, such as those used by Italian and Dalmatian shepherds
into the 19th century. Thus, the I descends from a notch scored across the stick. Every fifth notch was
double cut (⋀, ⋁, ⋋, ⋌, etc.), and every tenth was cross cut (X), much like European tally marks today. This
produced a positional system: Eight on a counting stick was eight tallies, IIIIΛIII, but this could be
abbreviated ΛIII (or VIII), as the existence of a Λ implies four prior notches. Likewise, number four on the
stick was the I-notch that could be felt just before the cut of the V, so it could be written as either IIII or IV.
Thus the system was neither additive nor subtractive in its conception, but ordinal. When the tallies were
later transferred to writing, the marks were easily identified with the existing Roman letters I, V, X.

(A folk etymology has it that the V represented a hand, and that the X was made by placing two Vs on top
of each other, one inverted.)

The tenth V or X along the stick received an extra stroke. Thus 50 was written variously as N, И, K, Ψ, ⋔,
etc., but perhaps most often as a chicken-track shape like a superimposed V and I. This had flattened to ⊥
(an inverted T) by the time of Augustus, and soon thereafter became identified with the graphically similar
letter L. Likewise, 100 was variously Ж, ⋉, ⋈, H, or as any of the symbols for 50 above plus an extra stroke.
The form Ж (that is, a superimposed X and I) came to predominate, was written variously as >I< or ƆIC,
was then shortened to Ɔ or C, with C finally winning out because, as a letter, it stood for centum (Latin for
'hundred').

The hundredth V or X was marked with a box or circle. Thus 500 was like a Ɔ superposed on a ⋌ or ⊢ (that
is, like a Þ with a cross bar), becoming a struck-through D or a Ð by the time of Augustus, under the
graphic influence of the letter D. It was later identified as the letter D, perhaps as an abbreviation of the
phrase demi-mille 'half-thousand'. Meanwhile, 1000 was a circled X: Ⓧ, ⊗, ⊕, and by Augustinian times
was partially identified with the Greek letter Φ. It then evolved along several independent routes. Some
variants, such as Ψ and CD (more accurately a reversed D adjacent to a regular D), were historical dead
ends (although one folk etymology later identified D for 500 as half of Φ for 1000 because of this CD
variant), while two variants of ↀ survive to this day. One, CIƆ, led to the convention of using parentheses
to indicate multiplication by 1000 (later extended to double parentheses as in ↁ, ↂ, etc.); in the other, ↀ
became ∞ and ⋈, eventually changing to M under the influence of the word mille ('thousand').

[edit] Zero

In general, the number zero did not have its own Roman numeral, but the concept of zero as a number was
well known by all medieval computists (responsible for calculating the date of Easter). They included zero
(via the Latin word nulla meaning nothing) as one of nineteen epacts, or the age of the moon on March 22.
The first three epacts were nullae, xi, and xxii (written in minuscule or lower case). The first known
computist to use zero was Dionysius Exiguus in 525, but the concept of zero was no doubt well known
earlier. Only one instance of a Roman numeral for zero is known. About 725, Bede or one of his colleagues
used the letter N, the initial of nullae, in a table of epacts, all written in Roman numerals.

A notation for the value zero is quite distinct from the role of the digit zero in a positional notation system.
The lack of a zero digit prevented Roman numerals from developing into a positional notation, and led to
their gradual replacement by Hindu-Arabic numerals in the early second millennium. On the other hand,
the lack of positional notation may have prevented the Romans from developing a "zero". Which affected
which is not certain.

[edit] Fractions

A triens coin (1/3 or 4/12 of an as). Note the four dots •••• indicating its value.

A semis coin (1/2 or 6/12 of an as). Note the S indicating its value.

Even though the Romans used a decimal system for whole numbers, presumably because of the number of
human fingers, they commonly used duodecimal for fractions, because the divisibility of twelve (12 =
2×2×3), as opposed to that of ten (10 = 2×5), makes it easier to handle such common fractions as 1/3 and
1/4. On coins, many of which had values that were duodecimal fractions of the unit as, they notated these
fractional quantities with a similar system to that of whole numbers, but based on one twelfth and six
twelfths instead of one unit and five units. They used a dot • to notate an uncia (one twelfth) and more dots
were added up to five twelfths. Then one half (six twelfths) was notated using the letter S for semis. Dots
were juxtaposed to S to notate the fractions from seven to eleven twelfths, just like bars
were juxtaposed to V for whole numbers from six to nine. Each of these fractions had its
own name, which was also the name used for the corresponding coin:

2/12 = 4/12 = 6/12 = 8/12 9/12 = 10/12 = 12/12

Fraction 1/12 3/12 = 1/4 5/12 7/12 11/12
1/6 1/3 1/2 = 2/3 3/4 5/6 =1

Roman
• •• ••• •••• ••••• S S• S•• S••• S•••• S••••• I
numeral

Name uncia sextans quadrans triens quincunx semis septunx bes dodrans dextans deunx as

[edit] IIII or IV?

An inscription on Admiralty Arch, London.

The notation of Roman numerals has varied through the centuries. Originally, it was common to use IIII to
represent "four", because IV represented the pagan god Jupiter. The subtractive notation (which uses IV
instead of IIII) has become universally used only in modern times. For example, Forme of Cury, a
manuscript from 1390, uses IX for "nine", but IIII for "four". Another document in the same manuscript,
from 1381, uses IV and IX. A third document in the same manuscript uses both IIII and IV, and IX.
Constructions such as IIIII for "five", IIX for "eight" or VV for "ten" have also been discovered.
Subtractive notation arose from regular Latin usage: the number "18" was duodeviginti or “two from
twenty”; the number "19" was undeviginti or “one from twenty”. The use of subtractive notation increased
the complexity of performing Roman arithmetic, without conveying the benefits of a full positional
notation system.

Likewise, on some buildings it is possible to see MDCCCCX, for example, representing 1910 instead of
MCMX - notably Admiralty Arch in London. Another notable example is on Harvard Medical School's
Library which reads MDCCCCIIII for 1904.

[edit] Calendars and clocks

Clock faces that are labelled using Roman numerals conventionally show IIII for 4 o'clock and IX for 9
o'clock, using the subtractive principle in one case and not in the other. There are several suggested
explanations for this, several of which may be true:

 The four-character form IIII creates a visual symmetry with the VIII on the other side, which IV
would not.
 The number of symbols on the clock totals twenty 'I's, four 'V's, and four 'X's, so clock makers
need only a single mold with five I's, a V, and an X in order to make the correct number of
numerals for the clocks, cast four times for each clock:
o V IIII IX
o VI II IIX
o VII III X
o VIII I IX

IIX and one of the IX's can be rearranged or inverted to form XI and XII. The alternative uses
seventeen 'I's, five 'V's, and four 'X's, possibly requiring the clock maker to have several different
molds.
 IIII was the preferred way for the ancient Romans to write 4, since they to a large extent avoided
subtraction.
 It has been suggested that since IV is the first two letters of IVPITER, the main god of the
Romans, it was not appropriate to use.
 The I symbol would be the only symbol in the first 4 hours of the clock, the V symbol would only
appear in the next 4 hours, and the X symbol only in the last 4 hours. This would add to the clock's
radial symmetry.
 IV is difficult to read upside down and on an angle, particularly at that location on the clock.
 Louis XIV, king of France, preferred IIII over IV, ordered his clockmakers to produce clocks with
IIII and not IV, and thus it has remained. [citation needed]

[edit] XCIX or IC?

Rules regarding Roman numerals often state that a symbol representing 10x may not precede any symbol
larger than 10x+1. For example, C cannot be preceded by I or V, only by X (or, of course, by a symbol
representing a value equal to or larger than C). Thus, one should represent the number "ninety-nine" as
XCIX, not as the "shortcut" IC. However, these rules are not universally followed.

This 'problem' manifested in questions as to why 1990 was not written as MXM instead of the universal
usage MCMXC, or why 1999 was not written simply IMM or MIM as opposed to the universal
MCMXCIX.

[edit] Year in Roman numerals

In seventeenth century Europe, using Roman numerals for the year of publication for books was standard;
there were many other places it was used as well. Publishers attempted to make the number easier to read
by those more accustomed to Arabic positional numerals. On British title pages, there were often spaces
between the groups of digits: M DCC LXI is one example. This may have come from the French, who
separated the groups of digits with periods, as: M.DCC.LXI. or M. DCC. LXI. Notice the period at the end
of the sequence; many countries did this for Roman numerals in general, but not necessarily Britain.
(Periods were also common on each side of numerals in running text, as in "commonet .iij. viros illos".)

These practices faded from general use before the start of the twentieth century, though the cornerstones of
major buildings still occasionally use them. Roman numerals are today still used on building faces for
dates: 2006 can be represented as MMVI.

Some believe that the film industry has used roman numerals to disguise the year of production. This would
allow producers to redistribute the film at different times to different areas while concealing the true date of
production from viewers. This became more useful when films were broadcast on television to partially
conceal the age of films. From this came the policy of the broadcasting industry, including the BBC, to use
them to denote the year in which a television program was made. (The Australian Broadcasting
Corporation has largely stopped this practice, but still occasionally lapses.)

[edit] Other modern usage by English-speaking peoples

Roman numerals remained in common use until about the 14th century, when they were replaced by Arabic
numerals (thought to have been introduced to Europe from al-Andalus, by way of Arab traders and
arithmetic treatises, around the 11th century). The use of Roman numerals today is mostly restricted to
ordinal numbers, such as volumes or chapters in a book or the numbers identifying monarchs or popes (eg.
Elizabeth II, Benedict XVI, etc.)

Sometimes the numerals are written using lower-case letters (thus: i, ii, iii, iv, etc.), particularly if
numbering paragraphs or sections within chapters, or for the pagination of the front matter of a book.

Undergraduate degrees at British universities are generally graded using I, IIi, IIii, III for first, upper
second (often pronounced "two one"), lower second (often pronounced "two two") and third class
respectively.

Modern English usage also employs Roman numerals in many books (especially anthologies), movies (eg.
Star Trek), sporting events (eg. the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl), and historic events (eg. World War I,
World War II). The common unifying theme seems to be stories or events that are episodic or annual in
nature, with the use of classical numbering suggesting importance or timelessness.

Sports teams can be referred to as the number of players in the squad with roman numerals. In rugby union,
the 1st XV of a particular club would be the 1st and best team the club has, likewise for the XIII in rugby
league, and XI for football (soccer), field hockey and cricket.

In chemistry, Roman numerals were used to denote the group in the periodic table of the elements. But
there was not international agreement as to whether the group of metals which dissolve in water should be
called Group IA or IB, for example, so although references may use them, the international norm has
recently switched to Arabic numerals.

In astronomy, the natural satellites or "moons" of the planets are traditionally designated by capital Roman
numerals, at first by order from the center of the planet, as the four Galilean satellites of Jupiter are
numbered, and later by order of discovery; e.g., Callisto was "Jupiter IV" or "J IV". With recent discoveries
—Jupiter currently has 63 known satellites—as well as computerization, this is somewhat disparaged for
the minor worlds, at least in computerized listings. Science fiction, and not astronomy per se, has adopted
the use for numbering the planets around a star; e.g., Planet Earth is called "Sol III".
In music theory, diatonic functions, scale degrees and the triads that have these degrees as their roots are
often identified by Roman numerals (as in chord symbols). Upper-case Roman numerals indicate
major triads while lower-case Roman numerals indicate minor triads, as the following
chart illustrates. The leading tone triad is diminished.

Roman numeral I ii iii IV V vi vii°

Scale degree tonic supertonic mediant subdominant dominant submediant leading tone/subtonic

[edit] Modern non-English speaking usage

The above uses are customary for English-speaking countries. Although many of them are also maintained
in other countries, those countries have additional uses for Roman numerals which are unknown in English-
speaking regions.

The French, the Portuguese, the Polish, and the Spanish use capital Roman numerals to denote centuries.
For example, 'XVIII' refers to the eighteenth century, so as to avoid confusion between the '18th century'
and the '1800s'. (The Italians usually take the opposite approach, basing names of centuries on the digits of
the years; quattrocento for example is the common Italian name for secolo XV, the fifteenth century.) Some
scholars in English-speaking countries have adopted the French method, among them Lyon Sprague de
Camp.

In Poland, and Russia, and in Spanish and Portuguese, mixed Roman numerals are used to record dates.
Just as an old clock recorded the hour by Roman numerals while the minutes were measured in Arabic
numerals, the month is written in Roman numerals while the day is in Arabic numerals: 14-VI-1789 is June
the fourteenth, 1789. This is how dates are inscribed on the walls of the Kremlin, for example. This method
has the advantage that days and months are not confused in rapid note-taking, and that any range of days or
months can be expressed without confusion. For instance, V-VIII is May to August, while 1-V-31-VIII is
May first to August thirty-first.

In Eastern Europe, especially the Baltic nations, Roman numerals are used to represent the days of the
week in hours-of-operation signs displayed in windows or on doors of businesses. Monday is represented
by I, which is the initial day of the week. Sunday is represented by VII, which is the final day of the week.
The hours of operation signs are tables composed of two columns where the left column is the day of the
week in Roman numerals and the right column is a range of hours of operation from starting time to closing
time. The following example hours-of-operation table would be for a business whose hours of operation are
9:30AM to 5:30PM on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; 9:30AM to 7:00PM on Tuesdays and
Fridays; and 9:30AM to 1:00PM on Saturdays; and which is closed on Sundays.

I 9:30–17:30

II 9:30–19:00
III 9:30–17:30

IV 9:30–17:30

V 9:30–19:00

VI 9:30–13:00

VII —

Since the French use capital Roman numerals to refer to the quarters of the year ('III' is the third quarter),
and this has become the norm in some European standards organisation, the mixed Roman-Arabic method
of recording the date has switched to lowercase Roman numerals in many circles, as '4-viii-1961'. (ISO has
since specified that dates should be given in all Arabic numerals, in ISO 8601 formats.)

In Romania, Roman numerals are used for floor numbering. Likewise apartments in central Amsterdam are
indicated as '138-III', with both an Arabic numeral (number of the block or house) and a Roman numeral
(floor number). The apartment on the ground floor is indicated as '138-huis'.

In Poland, Roman numerals are used for ordinals in names of some institutions. In particular high schools
("V Liceum Ogólnokształcące w Krakowie" - 5th High School in Kraków) and tax offices ("II Urząd
Skarbowy w Gdańsku" - 2nd tax office in Gdańsk) use Roman numerals. Institutions that use "Instutition nr
N" notation always use Arabic numerals. These include elementary ("Szkoła Podstawowa nr 5") and
middle schools ("Gimnazjum nr 5").

Roman numerals are rarely used in Asia. The motion picture rating system in Hong Kong uses categories I,
IIA, IIB, and III based on Roman numerals.

[edit] Alternate forms

Roman Numerals, 16th century

In the Middle Ages, Latin writers used a horizontal line above a particular numeral to represent one
thousand times that numeral, and additional vertical lines on both sides of the numeral to denote one
hundred times the number, as in these examples:

 I for one thousand

 V for five thousand
 |I| for one hundred thousand
 |V| for five hundred thousand

The same overline was also used with a different meaning, to clarify that the characters were numerals.
Sometimes both underline and overline were used, e. g. MCMLXVII, and in certain font-faces, particularly
Times New Roman, the capital letters when used without spaces simulates the appearance of the under/over
bar, eg. MCMLXVII, which is often exaggerated when written by hand.

Sometimes 500, usually D, was written as I followed by an apostrophus, resembling a backwards C (Ɔ),
while 1,000, usually M, was written as CIƆ. This is believed to be a system of encasing numbers to denote
thousands (imagine the Cs as parentheses). This system has its origins from Etruscan numeral usage. The D
and M symbols to represent 500 and 1,000 were most likely derived from IƆ and CIƆ, respectively.

An extra Ɔ denoted 500, and multiple extra Ɔs are used to denote 5,000, 50,000, etc. For
example:

Base Number:   CIƆ = 1,000 CCIƆƆ = 10,000 CCCIƆƆƆ = 100,000

1 extra Ɔ: IƆ = 500 CIƆƆ = 1,500 CCIƆƆƆ = 10,500 CCCIƆƆƆƆ = 100,500
2 extra Ɔs: IƆƆ = 5,000   CCIƆƆƆƆ = 15,000 CCCIƆƆƆƆƆ = 105,000
3 extra Ɔs: IƆƆƆ = 50,000     CCCIƆƆƆƆƆƆ = 150,000
Sometimes CIƆ was reduced to an lemniscate symbol (ↀ) for denoting 1,000. John Wallis is often
credited for introducing this symbol to represent infinity ( ), and one conjecture is that he based it on this
usage, since 1,000 was hyperbolically used to represent very large numbers. Similarly, 5,000 (IƆƆ) was
reduced to ↁ; and 10,000 (CCIƆƆ) was reduced to ↂ

In medieval times, before the letter j emerged as a distinct letter, a series of letters i in Roman numerals was
commonly ended with a flourish; hence they actually looked like ij, iij, iiij, etc. This proved useful in
preventing fraud, as it was impossible, for example, to add another i to vij to get viij. This practice is now
merely an antiquarian's note; it is never used. (It did, however, lead to the Dutch diphthong IJ.)

[edit] Table of Roman numerals

The "modern" Roman numerals, post-Victorian era, are shown below:

ASCII Unicode Arabic Notes

none none 0 N was used once (by Bede about 725).

I Ⅰ 1

II ⅠⅠ (or Ⅱ) 2

III ⅠⅠⅠ (or Ⅲ) 3

IV ⅠⅤ (or Ⅳ) 4 IIII (ⅠⅠⅠⅠ) is still used on clock and card faces.

V Ⅴ 5 IIIII was rarely used in the Middle Ages.

VI ⅤⅠ (or Ⅵ) 6

VII ⅤⅠⅠ (or Ⅶ) 7

VIII ⅤⅠⅠⅠ (or Ⅷ) 8 IIX was rarely used in the Middle Ages.

IX ⅠⅩ (or Ⅸ) 9
X Ⅹ 10 VV was rarely used in the Middle Ages.

XI ⅩⅠ (or Ⅺ) 11

XII ⅩⅠⅠ (or Ⅻ) 12

XIII ⅩⅠⅠⅠ 13

XIV ⅩⅠⅤ 14

XV ⅩⅤ 15

XVI ⅩⅤⅠ 16

XVII ⅩⅤⅠⅠ 17

XVIII ⅩⅤⅠⅠⅠ 18

XIX ⅩⅠⅩ 19

XX ⅩⅩ 20

XXX ⅩⅩⅩ 30

XL ⅩⅬ 40

L Ⅼ 50

LX ⅬⅩ 60

LXX ⅬⅩⅩ 70 The abbreviation for the Septuagint

LXXX ⅬⅩⅩⅩ 80

XC ⅩⅭ 90

XCIX ⅩⅭⅠⅩ 99 As opposed to the "shortcut" way IC seen above.

This is the origin of using the slang term "C-bill" or "C-note" for
C Ⅽ 100
"$100 bill".

CC ⅭⅭ 200

CD ⅭⅮ 400

D Ⅾ 500

DCLXVI ⅮⅭⅬⅩⅤⅠ 666 Using every basic symbol but M once gives the beast number.

CM ⅭⅯ 900

M Ⅿ 1000 MIX=1009

MCMXLV ⅯⅭⅯⅩⅬⅤ 1945

MCMXCVII MCMXCVII 1997

MCMXCIX ⅯⅭⅯⅩⅭⅠⅩ 1999 Shortcuts like IMM and MIM disagree with the rule stated above

MM ⅯⅯ 2000
MMM ⅯⅯⅯ 3000

MMMM ⅯⅯⅯⅯ 4000

V ⅠƆƆ 5000 I followed by two reversed C, an adapted Chalcidic sign

An accurate way to write large numbers in Roman numerals is to handle first the thousands, then hundreds,
then tens, then units.
Example: the number 1988.
One thousand is M, nine hundred is CM, eighty is LXXX, eight is VIII.
Put it together: MCMLXXXVIII (ⅯⅭⅯⅬⅩⅩⅩⅤⅠⅠⅠ).

Unicode has a number of characters specifically designated as Roman numerals, as part of the Number
Forms range from U+2160 to U+2183. For example, MCMLXXXVIII could alternatively be written as
ⅯⅭⅯⅬⅩⅩⅩⅧ. This range includes both upper- and lowercase numerals, as well as pre-combined
glyphs for numbers up to 12 (Ⅻ or XII), mainly intended for the clock faces for compatibility with non–
West-European encodings. The pre-combined glyphs should only be used to represent the individual
numbers where the use of individual glyphs is not wanted, and not to replace compounded numbers.
Similarly precombined glyphs for 5000 and 10000 exist.

The Unicode characters are present only for compatibility with other character standards which provide
these characters; for ordinary uses, the regular Latin letters are preferred. Displaying these characters
requires a user agent that can handle Unicode and a font that contains appropriate glyphs for them.

[edit] Games

After the Renaissance, the Roman system could also be used to write chronograms. It was common to put
in the first page of a book some phrase, so that when adding the I, V, X, L, C, D, M present in the phrase,
the reader would obtain a number, usually the year of publication. The phrase was often (but not always) in
Latin, as chronograms can be rendered in any language that utilises the Roman alphabet.

[edit] Mnemonic devices

There are several mnemonics that can be useful in remembering the Roman numeral system.

The following mnemonics recall the order of Roman numeral values above ten, with L being 50, C being
100, D being 500, and M being 1000.

 Lucky Cows Drink Milk

 Lucy Can't Drink Milk
 Lazy Cows Don't Moo

A longer mnemonic helps to recall the order the order of Roman numerals from big to small.

 My Dear Cat Loves Xtra Vitamins Intensely

[edit] References
  Menninger, Karl (1992). Number Words and Number Symbols: A Cultural History of Numbers.
Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-27096-3.

[edit] See also

 Roman arithmetic
 Arabic numerals

[edit] External links

 Online Converter for Decimal/Roman Numerals (JavaScript, GPL)

 Roman Numeral Conversion Exercises (Java)
 Why do clocks with Roman numerals use "IIII" instead of "IV"?: FAQ #1, FAQ #2
 "Romance in Numbers" by Paul Niquette

The Latin alphabet

A
Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
a

history • palaeography • derivations • diacritics • punctuation • numerals • Unicode • ISO 646 •

list of letters