Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!fwi.uva.nl!moerbeek From: moerbeek@fwi.uva.nl (Otto Moerbeek) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: 1990 in Roman Numerals Message-ID: <358@fwi.uva.nl> Date: 6 Jan 90 18:04:49 GMT References: <859@mti.mti.com> <604@torch.co.uk> Sender: news@fwi.uva.nl Lines: 28 igp@torch.co.uk (Ian Phillipps) writes: >Genuine Roman use didn't have ANY subtractive method: thus 1990 would be >MDCCCCLXXXX. Later (mediaeval?) abbreviations allowed <10n> to mean 9n, >and <5n> to mean 4n. No other contractions are possible, so TeX is right. Not completely true, the "subtractive" method was used in the republican period of the Roman Empire, but not in official documents and inscriptions. A very nice source for almost all number systems used almost everywhere is: "From One To Zero", by Georges Ifrah, Penguin. This book has a reproduction of an inscription where the subtractive principle is used. It uses an upside-down T for the value 50, and an infinity-sign for the value 1000. The system as we know it developed at the end of the republican period, and was common during the imperial period; use of the subtractive principle was very rare, but it is not true that the Romans didn't known the principle. Greetings, Otto -- Otto Moerbeek Email: moerbeek@fwi.uva.nl UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!hp4nl!uva!moerbeek or moerbeek%fwi.uva.nl@hp4nl.nluug.nl (only for dumb mailers)