What Super Bowl is it? How to Read Roman Numerals

by Emily Sutherlin | February 5, 2012 at 08:48 pm

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Every year, the Super Bowl counts upward in Roman Numerals, but what are Roman Numerals, and how do you read them?
Basic Roman Numerals
Back in the Roman days (obviously) letters were used to describe numbers much like how we count money today: in ones, fives, tens, and so on.

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

How to Read Roman Numerals
In today's society, you can't look at a Roman Numeral and not sound out the "word". When you see Super Bowl 46 in roman numerals, your brain probably thinks "EX EL VEE EYE", or you turn to the nearest person and ask "which Super Bowl is it?"

The easiest way to note down a number is to make that many marks - little I's. Thus I means 1, II means 2, III means 3. However, four strokes seemed like too many....
So the Romans moved on to the symbol for 5 - V. Placing I in front of the V — or placing any smaller number in front of any larger number — indicates subtraction. So IV means 4. After V comes a series of additions - VI means 6, VII means 7, VIII means 8.
X means 10. But wait — what about 9? Same deal. IX means to subtract I from X, leaving 9. Numbers in the teens, twenties and thirties follow the same form as the first set, only with X's indicating the number of tens. So XXXI is 31, and XXIV is 24.
L means 50. Based on what you've learned, I bet you can figure out what 40 is. If you guessed XL, you're right = 10 subtracted from 50. And thus 60, 70, and 80 are LX, LXX and LXXX.
C stands for centum, the Latin word for 100. A centurion led 100 men. We still use this in words like "century" and "cent." The subtraction rule means 90 is written as XC. Like the X's and L's, the C's are tacked on to the beginning of numbers to indicate how many hundreds there are: CCCLXIX is 369.
D stands for 500. As you can probably guess by this time, CD means 400. So CDXLVIII is 448. (See why we switched systems?)
M is 1,000. You see a lot of Ms because Roman numerals are used a lot to indicate dates. For instance, this page was written in the year of Nova Roma's founding, 1998 CE (Common Era; Christians use AD for Anno Domini, "year of our Lord"). That year is written as MCMXCVIII. But wait! Nova Roma counts years from the founding of Rome, ab urbe condita. By that reckoning Nova Roma was founded in 2751 a.u.c. or MMDCCLI.

Larger numbers were indicated by putting a horizontal line over them, which meant to multiply the number by 1,000. Hence the V at left has a line over the top, which means 5,000. This usage is no longer current, because the largest numbers usually expressed in the Roman system are dates, as discussed above.

Reading Roman numerals is simply adding. That seems easy, but when you get into the thirties and fourties, the numbers can seem jumbled.
We'll use Super Bowl 46 as an example. 46 in Roman numerals is XLVI. The first number is 10 - so you know the number is higher than 10. The next number is L, which is 50. Since the X is before the L, you know that the number is 50-10, which is 40. VI of course is 6, which gives us 46.

Always start counting higher roman numeral numbers by taking the first two numerals first. You always subtract the first numeral from the second.

What are Roman Numerals used for?

Roman numerals remained in common use until about the 14th century, when they were outmoded by Hindu-Arabic numerals (thought to have been introduced to Europe from al-Andalus, by way of Arab traders and arithmetic treatises, around the 11th century) in practically all mathematical and economical applications. Roman numerals are still used today in several niche contexts. A few examples of their current use include:

Names of monarchs and Popes, e.g. Elizabeth II, Benedict XVI. These are referred to as monarchical ordinals; e.g. "II" is pronounced "the second". This tradition began in Europe sporadically in the Middle Ages, gaining widespread use in England only during the reign of Henry VIII. Previously, the monarch was not known by numeral but by an epithet such as Edward the Confessor.
The year of production of films, television shows and other works of art within the work itself, which according to BBC News was originally done "in an attempt to disguise the age of films or television programmes."[18] Outside reference to the work will use regular Hindu-Arabic numerals.
Hour marks on timepieces.
The year of construction on building faces and cornerstones.
Page numbering of prefaces and introductions of books.
Book volume and chapter numbers.
Sequels of movies, video games, and other works.
Outlines.
A recurring grand event, such as the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl.