A Brief History of Roman Numerals

Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers in this system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet.

The Basic Symbols

The system uses seven symbols with fixed integer values:

• I: 1
• V: 5
• X: 10
• L: 50
• C: 100
• D: 500
• M: 1000

Modern Usage

While the Hindu-Arabic numeral system has largely replaced Roman numerals in everyday life, they are still used in specific contexts. You will see them on clock faces, in book chapters, movie sequels, and famously, the Super Bowl.

Need to convert a number to a Roman numeral? Use our free converter tool to quickly translate any integer up to 3999 into its correct Roman form.