From: Christian Neukirchen Date: 2005-03-06T20:52:16+09:00 Subject: Re: [QUIZ] Roman Numerals (#22) "ES" writes: > On Sat, March 5, 2005 5:38 pm, Mark Hubbart said: >> The rule of thumb as I remember it is that you can't prefix a symbol >> that is greater than one order of magnitude (base ten). So, IX is >> okay, where IC and IM are not. > > This is the correct modern stipulation. The Romans were slightly less > formal about it as long as the intention was clear (there's the famous > example of IIII instead of IV, as IV was forbidden because it appears > in the name of IVPITER). Afaik, this was the reason for Christians not to use IV (especially on church clocks), not for the Romans. -- Christian Neukirchen http://chneukirchen.org