PR-2237IRE Ancient Rome

Roman numerals (symbols representing
numbers) are better known today than the
numerals of any other ancient number systems such
as the Greek, Egyptian etc. The Roman system was
based on seven numerals, which were I, V, X, L, C, D
and M. Like our numbers they were written from left
to right, but there was no place value as we have in
our system. We have the commonly used values,
thousands, hundreds, tens and units, so two thousand,
three hundred and sixty-eight can be shown as 2 3 6 8.
Activity Box
Roman Life – Numbers
Roman numerals use the additive and subtractive principles. e.g. VII=5+1+1=7 (A),
IV = take 1 from 5 = 4(S), XXIV = 10+10+(5-1)=24 (A and S)
1. Complete the examples as shown above. e.g. XXI = 10 + 10 + 1 = 21 (A)
(a) XI = = ( )
(b) LX = = ( )
(c) XXXIX = = ( )
(d) MCC = = ( )
(e) XC = = ( )
(f) XL = = ( )
(g) CLX = = ( )
(h) DCC = = ( )
(i) MCLIV = = ( )
(j) MDCCC = = ( )
2. Now write these Roman numerals from the first century BC in our Hindu-Arabic numerals:
(a) L = (g) LX =
(b) C = (h) XC =
(c) VI = (i) LXX =
(d) XVI = (j) LV =
(e) DC = (k) X =
(f) M = (l) XX =
The same number using Roman numerals would be
MMCCCLXVIII! Large numbers were clumsy and
complicated, and though additions and subtractions
were easy to do, other calculations were difficult. As
you can see, some numerals can be repeated in a
number but ‘V’ and ‘L’ are never repeated.
Towards the end of the Republic in the first century
BC, a bar over a number multiplied it by a thousand,
so V was 5 000 and D 500 000. There was no numeral
for zero and centuries later, during the middle ages,
Europeans replaced the Roman system with the
Hindu-Arabic system which used the symbols 0–9.
This made calculations much simpler.
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