History Of Roman Numerals
There are no accurately documented historical accounts about the history of Roman numerals. Most of what is available as documentary proof is highly ambiguous. According to the common belief, humans began to count on fingers and therefore the counting is usually done in tens. The theory of Roman numerals is also based on a similar assumption. |
1 is represented by a single stroke I, which signifies a single finger. Similarly, the number 2 is represented by two parallel strokes II that represents two fingers. In Roman numerals, number 5 is written as V, while number 10 as X. Both these symbols represent the shape of the fingers when one or two handfuls of fingers are stretched out to count 5 or 10.
The Roman symbols C for 100 and M for 1000 are said to have derived from the Latin words centum and mille used for the two numbers respectively. However, there are several other contradicting theories about the origin of the various symbols of the Roman numerals. Some historians claim that in ancient times, number 1000 was represented by symbol (I) and number 500 by symbol I). These symbols got corrupted and were interpreted as M and D erroneously. This theory is held up by the fact that year 1579 is represented as (I) I) LXXIX on an old 16th century map kept in the geographical room in Vatican city of Rome.
The history of Roman numerals can be tagged along the history of ancient Rome. The oldest records depicting the use of Roman numerals date back to 8th or 9th century BC. Its use declined with the fall of Rome in the second century AD and they were soon replaced by Arabic numerals. However, the elegant Roman numerals have an extensive history and one can say without doubt that the Roman numerals will not fade away anytime soon.
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