Roman Numerals Explained For Dummies

Roman numerals for single digits:

Ⅰ-1, Ⅱ-2, Ⅲ-3, Ⅳ-4, Ⅴ-5, Ⅵ-6, Ⅶ-7, Ⅷ-8, Ⅸ-9

Roman numerals for tens:

Ⅹ-10, Ⅺ-11, Ⅻ-12, XIII-13, XIV-14, XV-15, XVI-16, XVII-17, XVIII-18,

XIX-19, XX-20, XXI-21, XXII-22, XXIX-29, XXX-30, XXXIV-34, XXXV-35,

Additional information:

Roman numerals are the earliest known system of representing numbers, over 2,000 years older than Arabic numerals, and originated in ancient Rome.

The most common way ancient Romans expressed 4 was IIII, so the design of IV has always faced strong objections from “traditionalists.”

James O’Donnell, professor of classical philology and provost at Georgetown University, says that although ancient Romans sometimes wrote 4 as IV to save space, this abbreviation did not become popular until the Middle Ages, and in fact this was not considered standard.

Common uses

The most common use of Roman numerals is on clock and watch dials: Ⅰ, Ⅱ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ (or IIII), Ⅴ, Ⅵ, Ⅶ, Ⅷ, Ⅸ