Introduction to Roman Numeral Symbols


There are seven specific letters represent Roman numerals:

IVXLCDM
1510501005001000

These seven letters are used to make thousands of different number combinations. For example, number three is written as ‘III’ (1 + 1 + 1), which is simply three one’s combined together. The number twenty-three is written in Roman numerals as, XXIII, which is ‘XX + III’ (10 + 10 + 1 + 1 +1 = 23).

Additional examples:

NumberNumerals
17XVII
27XXVII
30XXX
33XXXIII
53LIII
103CIII

Roman numerals are usually written in order of largest to smallest, and from left to right. Yet, there are six numbers that break this rule, because the Romans didn’t like to have four of the same numerals combined. This lead to the creation of the Subtractive Principle.