3 ms·
Look at old latin inscriptions in Europe and you might see IIII instead of IV. Turns out the rules of Roman numerals we know today are a recent convention :)
by epilys 3y ago
Look at old latin inscriptions in Europe and you might see IIII instead of IV. Turns out the rules of Roman numerals we know today are a recent convention :)
- rollcat 3y agoIt's because Romans mostly concerned themselves with counting things, and this is what the system was optimized for. When you want to add two roman numbers, you just i. put them together, ii. sort the digits in descending order, and iii. shorten all "iiiii" to "v", all "vv" to "x", and so on. i. vii + xiii -> viixiii ii. viixiii -> xviiiii iii. xviiiii -> xvv -> xx