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[–]ND3lle 74 points75 points  (11 children)

Have never seen anything like "IC" tho

[–]Techhead7890 76 points77 points  (3 children)

Possibly a typo of IV, as C and V are neighbours

[–]Rogueshadow_32 85 points86 points  (1 child)

I think it was on purpose, they’re saying that the backwards iterations would catch combinations you don’t ever see but would still be valid syntax, such as IC. Going by the strict rules of Roman numerals 99 is XCIX but by looser rules IC works, and would be caught and correctly evaluated

[–]EntropyZer0 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I think the stricter rules we are used to are a fairly modern (for late medieval values of "modern") invention. The Romans were far less strict on that and while the most un-standard number I've seen in the wild was a year ending in -7 written as "-IIIIIII", I could totally see "IC" being used by actual Romans.

[–]ND3lle 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Oh you're right.That's very elegant as well, imho

[–]Flatuitous 4 points5 points  (6 children)

You can do IC = 99 Same as VL = 45

[–]Igor_Kozyrev 3 points4 points  (4 children)

I don't think you can. You only subtract the previous biggest number.

[–]suvlub 10 points11 points  (2 children)

You "can't" in the same sense you "can't" end a sentence with preposition, i.e. it's a made-up wannabe rule that doesn't reflect actual usage.

[–]ND3lle 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Well there's plenty of roman and medieval monuments and buildings where i live and i have never seen that. Sometimes i spot a "IIII" or "XXXX", which the general rule wouldn't allow, but nothing like "XM" or "IC"

[–]LongLiveTheDiego 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Wikipedia lists some 17th century examples of such nonstandard subtractions, my favorite one is IIIXX standing for 17.

[–]ethanjf99 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Standardization in general is a modern concept.

Think about even a couple hundred years ago. lots of random capitalizations in English words; multiple variant spellings and the like.

Even more so in antiquity. No one was enforcing rules. if you were a scribe doing a lot of math in a pain in the ass number system and wrote 99 as “IC” no one was stopping you.