Brief History and Origin of Roman Numerals When were roman numerals discovered? The history and origin of Roman numerals has not been made clear by the writers of the period. What is clear is that numerals were used by the ancient Etruscans. An interesting aspect of the Etruscan numeral system is that some numbers, like in the number system of the Romans, are represented as partial subtractions. The Etruscan numeric system was adapted from the Greek Attic numerals providing ideas for the later Roman numerals. However, the origin of the Roman numeral system is probably very simple. The system is based on the number 10 - so no doubt this ancient counting system was originally based based on a counting method using the fingers. A single stroke of the pen would represent one finger. The Latin word for 100 is centum and for 1000 is mille giving the numerals C and M. Large Roman Numerals Conversion Chart Use this Numerals Conversion Chart to translate large numbers into Roman Numerals. X: 10 L: 50 C: 100 CC: 200 CCC: 300 CD: 400 D: 500 DC: 600 DCC: 700 DCCC: 800 CM: 900 M: 1000 MCM: 1900 MM: 2000 MMM: 3000 MMMM: 4000 Large Roman Numerals Conversion Chart Use this Roman Numerals Conversion Chart to translate large numbers into numerals. For the large numbers (4000 and above), a horizontal bar is placed above a base numeral to indicate multiplication by 1000. V =5000 _ X =10,000 _ L =50,000 _ C =100,000 _ D =500,000 _ M =1,000,000 Roman Numerals - Remember this Saying! The following memory aid that can be useful in helping to translate numbers into Roman Numerals. Use this as an easy reminder of how to read and convert Roman numerals.! "My Daft Cousin Loves Extra Vitamins!" My: M: 1000 Daft: D: 500 Cousin: C: 100 Loves: L: 50 Extra: X: 10 Vitamins: V: 5 |