From the time they learned to write the Romans, like all cultures needed a way to indicate numbers. The system that developed lasted for many centuries, and is still seen in some specialised cases today.
Roman numerals are sometimes still used in the publishing industry, for copyright dates, and are often seen at the end of films or television programmes indicating the date filming completed. They are also traditionally used to indicate the order of rulers (i.e. Queen Elizabeth II), and can often be seen in place of arabic numerals on clock faces.
The Roman numbering system also lives on in our language, which still uses Latin word roots to express numerical ideas. For example - unilateral, quadratic, octogenarian, decade, millimetre, centennial.
You will notice however that the Roman numbering system does not have a symbol for zero, they included zero by use of the Roman word for nothing - Nulla. Also number placement within a string can indicate subtraction of the lesser number, rather than addition. For example: the number 9 is written IX (10 minus 1).
For larger numbers the Roman system placed a line or bar above smaller numbers, indicating that the number was to be multiplied by a factor of one thousand.
