All About Numbers
Reading and Writing Roman Numerals
Roman numerals never really went away. Long after the Roman Empire fell and Hindu-Arabic digits took over everyday arithmetic, Roman numerals kept a permanent home in clocks, books, film credits, monarchs’ names, and dozens of other formal or traditional contexts. Reading them means seeing a numeral and instantly knowing the number it stands for; writing them means starting from a number and building the correct numeral. Both skills use exactly the rules from the previous two pages — this page is about putting them to work.
Where You’ll Actually See Roman Numerals
Many analogue clocks number the hours I through XII — but look closely at the 4, and on a lot of traditional dials you’ll see IIII instead of the “correct” IV. Nobody knows for certain why the convention stuck: some historians point to visual symmetry (IIII balances VIII across the dial better than IV does), others suggest it avoids confusion with the nearby VI, and an old legend (probably untrue) blames a king who supposedly preferred IIII. Whatever the reason, it’s a deliberate design tradition, not a mistake — we’ll return to this on the mistakes page.
The preface, foreword and table of contents of a book are traditionally numbered with lowercase Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv…) before the main text restarts at page 1. “See page xiv” means page 14 of the introduction, not the main book.
End credits often display the copyright year in Roman numerals, e.g. MCMXCVI.
Split into chunks: M | CM | XC | VI → 1000 + 900 + 90 + 6 = 1996.
Every Super Bowl has been numbered with Roman numerals since the first game in 1967. Super Bowl LVIII was played in 2024.
L = 50, VIII = 8 → 50 + 8 = 58th Super Bowl.
When several rulers share a name, a Roman numeral tells them apart: Queen Elizabeth II, King Henry VIII, King Louis XIV, Pope John Paul II. King Louis XIV of France was the fourteenth king named Louis — X + IV = 10 + 4 = 14.
Older buildings often carve their founding year into the cornerstone, e.g. MCMXXII.
Split into chunks: M | CM | XX | II → 1000 + 900 + 20 + 2 = 1922.
Step by Step: Reading Any Roman Numeral You Encounter
- Scan the numeral left to right and split it into recognisable chunks — a subtractive pair (like CM or XC) or a run of repeated symbols (like III).
- Find the value of each chunk using the symbol values and subtractive-pair table from the earlier pages.
- Add every chunk’s value together.
Split into chunks: M | CM | LXXX | IX
M = 1000 | CM = 900 | LXXX = 80 | IX = 9
Add: 1000 + 900 + 80 + 9 = 1989
Step by Step: Writing a Number for a Real Situation
Suppose you’re designing a plaque to mark this year’s founding date, 2024.
- Split the number into place values: 2024 = 2000 + 20 + 4.
- Convert each part: 2000 = MM | 20 = XX | 4 = IV.
- Join largest to smallest: MMXXIV.
Uppercase vs Lowercase
You may notice both I, V, X… and i, v, x… in the wild. These aren’t two different numbering systems — it’s purely a style choice. Formal, prominent uses (film titles, monarchs’ names, building inscriptions) are almost always uppercase. Lowercase is a typographic convention reserved for quieter contexts, like book preface page numbers or sub-items in an outline (i, ii, iii… under a numbered heading).
- Reading a numeral means splitting it into chunks, valuing each chunk, then adding.
- Writing a numeral means splitting the number into place values, converting each part, then joining largest to smallest.
- Roman numerals show up in clocks, book prefaces, film credits, sports numbering, and royal or papal names.
- Uppercase is standard for formal use; lowercase is a typographic convention for less prominent contexts.
Practice: Reading and Writing Roman Numerals
Read a Roman numeral in context, or write one for a given number.