History of Europe

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Curiosities of Roman numerals.

Today the use of Roman numerals is limited to certain fields:

watches
list volumes, chapters and volumes of a work.
names of popes, kings and emperors.
acts and scenes of a play.
in the designation of congresses, Olympics, assemblies, contests, etc.

Initially they only used the symbol «I» for the unit, but when large quantities had to be represented (IIIIII…) one got confused. So, the Romans who were very smart (as if they had not achieved the Roman Empire) decided to cross a stick with a slanted line (X) to represent ten. And for five? easy, since five is half of ten, we cut X in the middle and turn it into V, and we have five.

A cuckold was equivalent to 400. The gesture we make when we extend the little finger and index finger and leave the two middle fingers flexed is a cuckold , well, this gesture made with the right hand represented 400 and with the left hand there were four.

This is 400 (right hand)

As ~~Asterix~~ said Obelix:

these Romans are crazy.

Source:The Hypotenuse Club – Claudi Alsina

Photo:Children of Cain

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