Roman numeral

Roman numerals are an ancient system of representing numbers devised by the Romans and still sometimes encountered today, often on clockfaces or in formal or old fashioned contexts. Unlike our modern system, Roman numerals used letters of the alphabet and did not use a decimal place system.

• I (1)
• II (2)
• III (3)
• IV (4)
• V (5)
• VI (6)
• VII (7)
• VIII (8)
• IX (9)
• X (10)
• -
• L (50)
• -
• C (100)
• -
• D (500)
• -
• M (1000)

The system could be very cumbersome. The year 1888, for example, is written MDCCCLXXXVIII. 1999 is MCMXCIX, whereas 2000 is MM. There was also no symbol for zero, and there is no Year 0 between 1 BC and AD 1.