ROMAN NUMERALS.

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to my readers the following explanation, which differs fromall I have yet seen.

Whilst in the Hebrew , the Greek, and most of theoriental languages, the whole of the letters serve to designatenumbers, the Romans have employed only seven, that is,I,V,X,L,C,D, and M. This simplicity has evidently beenthe result of a better considered plan than the first spokenof; but simplicity like other good things, has limits beyond[ which it falls into feebleness and inefficiency.

The Romans began by the natural idea of representing1 unity by a simple vertical stroke I.; they marked twounities by II., three unities by III., four unities by IIII., andso on up to nine unities. In many ancient inscriptions, quatuorvir (fourth man) is written Ini vir; sevir, or. sesvir (sixth man) is written Imil vir.

It would appear that the Romans in order to show to theeye that the first corporation of units was complete whenthey arrived at the tenth, or last vertical line, bethoughtthem of crossing it, which formed the X., as is still practisedon the wooden “ tallies,” of milk-maids, of the Exchequer,and of warehousemen.

Two tens then became expressed by two X’s., three tensby three X’s, and so on up to nine X’s., in like manner as nineunities had been expressed by nine I’s. Arrived at this point,they gave to their teller C., initial of their word centum,the faculty of representing the number one hundred, or thetenth ten.

| The process was analogously continued in wishing to[represent an accumulation of hundreds; they wrote CC., fortwo hundred; CCC., for three hundred; CCCC., forifour hundred, and so on to nine hundred. The tenthhundred, or a thousand, was represented by the sign CIq,or by the letter M., initial of the word mille, a thousand.

This system of numerical writing was defective from excess