Did You Know Roman Numerals Used to Indicate Order of the Family Offspring
Most of us believe that Roman numerals were formulated by the great Romans but the fact is these were first created by Etruscans who first started writing these numerals that too from right to left. But when Romans took over them, they transformed their original style and customized it by reversing the way they used to count. Facts and stats about Etruscans are still mysterious to the world, they were simply known as people of the sea. Although the history of these numerals is still not clear to the writers of old times and the modern times but the only reality that is known by everyone is that Etruscans were the actual creators of this brilliant system.
Facts about Roman Numerals:
If you haven’t noticed till now, all the numbers in this system can be written using various combinations of the seven basic roman numerals – I meaning 1, V meaning 5, X meaning 10, L meaning 50, C meaning 100, D meaning 500 and M meaning 1000. So, if you remember these seven numerals and learn all the rules of the system, you can write any number and master the Roman system. The positioning of the numbers and the alphabets play a very important role in governing the roman number it forms. The Arabic number system was not known to Europeans until the era of 900 AD while the roman system is as old as 1000 years BC.
Traditional and Modern Use of Roman System:
Initially the roman system was used to depict the order of family offspring with the same name. Even in United Kingdom, the kings used this system to name their offspring. Apart from this, Roman numeral system was used to engrave dates on the cornerstones, walls of the buildings, ships, huge statues, and so on.
In the modern world, these numerals are used for pagination purpose in books, e-books, novels and even chapter headings. The first page or appendix of most of the educational books consists of roman numbers only. Sometimes to mention various points in a paragraph, instead of bullets, these are used to mark sub-points. The roman numerals are majorly used in watches and clocks even today. It is also used in Super Bowl, although students do not actually know what those letters mean in Super Bowl.
Have you noticed the numbers that are given to movie sequels? Yes, it is the roman system that is used to give different number to the movie sequels that carry the same name.
The Roman numbering system has brilliantly survived through years and this existence of the systems depicts its importance and necessity in today’s modern world. Another great feature depicted by this system is the existence of numbers and alphabets as a single entity; this idea makes the two inseparable. It shows the actual meaning of Preservation and to quote an example we have “Big Ben” in United Kingdom which uses Roman numbered clock. If you want to learn more about Roman Numerals, try to search for its root in the past