In this paper we try to look and examine the Roman numeral system. We shall be able to take a close look at the history, their use and importance that range from the time of their invention to the present day writing.
The history of Roman numerals follows the history of the state of Rome itself and it is documented that it started at the Latin Palatine Hill from around the 8th and 9th Century BC and it also traced to its fall in the 2nd Century AD following the civil war, plague, civil apathy and to the rise of Christianity as well as the northern European powers at the same time (www.romannumerals.co.uk/roman-numerals/numerals-history-html). It is written how the Roman Empire had industrial, inspirational and intellectual beginnings which included Archimedes, Aristarchus, Aristotle, Euclid and Emperor Domitians. Because of this intellect and mathematicians, skills were developed to build the coliseum and other artistic sites. At the same the number system was flawed to the extent that it had no zero (0) and there was no clear method for counting above several thousands to a point that lines were simply drawn above a number to indicate multiplication. At the time of the fall of the Roman Empire by 300AD, the introduction and adoption of Arabic numerals that are today called decimal numbers due to the consistent use of base 10 was introduced.
The Roman numerical system date back as far as the 1st century BC when at that time they were used to record numbers on stone, coins and art. It was not until 500 BCE that the system fully developed and it is when it was popular in use and symbols were clearly put down for guidance in writing. According to basic.mathematics.com, this system is also known to use special symbols that represent numbers just like any ancient numeral system. Some element numerals can be listed as
The letter ‘X’ was the Etruscan symbol that was used to write the number 10, and in this ‘X’ the top half was also taken to mean half of 10 which are 5 and so ‘V’ was taken to mean the number 5. These are written as of the ancient Greek symbols which were brought in like letter ‘L’ for 50 and the Greek symbol phi, which later was to become curved for M to stand for 1000.
There have been gradual changes in the numeration system. Like to make the number of 10,000, phi was later to be surrounded by a circle and the third circle around phi was to be taken for 100,000. At this time, the right half of phi was to mean 500, which appeared like the letter C which was called Cicero. The bigger numbers were written as multiples of the smaller ones by significance of the horizontal line above the small number.
The number 100 was probably given by the chalcidic theta, Ɵ which was later to become a C, which is perhaps as a result of the fact that it Latin for 100 is centum to mean century or 100. Some of the symbols therefore may have been inspired by the names from ancient alphabets like for the Romans and the Greeks.
After the evolution of the Roman numeral system, two useful attributes about the manipulation of these numbers were introduced and they helped to make the system of Roman numeration very efficient and useful as well. According to basic-mathematics.com, these principles are subtractive and the multiplicative principles. The subtractive principle specifying that the numerals can be paired such that when we read numbers left to right, the values of symbols in any of the given pair increases. And as such it is assumed that in a given pair, the value in a pair is given by the difference between the bigger number and the smaller number in the pair. As an example for subtractive principle we take pair of C and D or CD. The value in this pair is D – C = 500 – 100 = 400. Whereas for the multiplicative principle, the system specifies that a horizontal line above any given number multiplies that number by 1000 for example means 4 times 1000 which is 4000 and means 5 times 1000 times 1000 which is 5,000,000 because there are two horizontal lines above the letter V which stands for 5.
Mathematicians have continued to write about Roman numerals just because of the importance. According to the site, www.romannumerals.co.uk/roman-numerals/numerals-chart.thml, these roman numerals can be formed by stringing the numerals to sum up numbers as may be required. The rules or principles, some of which have been mention above, are in the way the numbers are written; the numerals are written from the left to right and with the largest numeral written first; a smaller numeral like I or X if written or placed before a larger numeral has an effect of a subtraction for example IV is taken to mean 5 minus 1 which is 4. As we have seen before, this is the principle of subtraction; there are not more than three instances where the same adjacent numeral can be written, for example 4 can only be written as IV but not as IIII and 40 shall be written as XV but not as XXXX.
The system of roman numerals is so ancient that it was used as soon it was developed by the Romans and the Europeans widely dating back as early as 1800 years before the current Hindu-Arabic system ultimately brought into existence. This system was surely easy in operations of addition and or subtraction; however the other arithmetic operations were slightly more difficult (www.bookrags.com/research/roman-numerals-their-origins-impact-scit-01123). This was because the system lacked a system that could be effective for fractions and so was generally taken to be cumbersome in nature; nevertheless it served most needs of the Romans even if it hindered the future advancement in mathematics.
The roman numerals can be converted mathematically very simply by way of assigning every numerical value to each letter in a convention as the chart we have above. The total of such values can then be calculated. We take for example MDCLXVI as Roman numeral whose value we want to find. In modern convention as seen in the above chart, the letters are arranged from left to right, biggest to smallest respectively that is to say decreasing order (www.ancient.history.about.com/gi/o.html). The total can then be calculated.
The value of MDCLXVI is then found by calculating by addition which will be 1000 + 500 + 100 + 50 + 10 + 5 + 1 = 1666
Presently, roman numerals have several importances in application as we would imagine any topic worth the time and space of study (www.xw.org/v.html). The Roman numeral symbols have a wide range of usage; from media, art to coins and films and television production.
They are used frequently as list numbers in various instances. The writing format in small caps is commonly used to appear in notes and in some instances outlines as a way of breaking down information in structure like; (i), (ii), (iii), (iv),and (x) etc.
They are used on buildings to indicate their dates of construction
The roman numerals are used on the side of ships to show numbers
The roman numeration systems are also used severally to indicate historic events and to write on roman coins and time pieces, art pieces and antiquities in important cultural sites like museums and antique shops.
In modern time and computer era, almost all computer processing packages today allow uppercase and lower case characters to use roman numerals as item listing method.
Roman numerals are also used in classic style and clock faces in which we severally can find 4 written as IIII instead of IV as special case only. In fact most clocks in major towns and cities are written in roman numerals for the beauty of the numerals and symmetry.
Most books and novels have these roman numerals used for chapter headings or chapter beginnings. Some books have their forward pages indicated in the roman numerals to indicate the page forward. These roman numerals are often to be found in the preliminary pages of the books.
In the media, the copyright dates in films and television series are indicated by these roman numeration systems. One can note that the dates of production like on BBC and films are given in roman numerals like BBC production: XXVIII to the BBC production of 2008. They indicate sequels in films like Rambo IV to mean fourth edition of edition.
The modern appliance equipment manufactures also find use of these roman numerals important. A case in point is Intel, who are computer chip makers called some of their versions of the processors; Pentium II, Pentium III and in 2000 they unveiled Pentium 4 only because writing Pentium IV would be cumbersome for their clients (www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.html).
Sports and games events have also taken on writing their events using Roman numeral system. For example the 28th Olympic games of Beijing were called the XXVIII Olympiad to mean the 2008 Olympiad.
The roman numerals are also used to indicate the titles of prominent people like in monarchies and in religious circles like the naming of kings and popes respectively. The reason we hear of names like King Louis XIV of France, Queen Elizabeth I, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XIV, Pope Francis I and so forth respectively.
We should also be able to note that music theory and notation started with specific roman numerals. The modern notation also uses all caps of the roman numerals for some major movements.
The history of the roman numeration systems is therefore as rich as the importance of the system itself in use. From the ancient setting when the numbers where written on stone up to present when we have transformed to computer and information age, the roman numeration system has remained important as field of mathematics.
Bibliography
www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.html
www.xw.org/v.html
www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.html
www.ancient.history.about.com/gi/o.html
www.bookrags.com/research/roman-numerals-their-origins-impact-scit-01123
www.romannumerals.co.uk/roman-numerals/numerals-chart.thml
www.romannumerals.co.uk/roman-numerals/numerals-history-html
