It thus makes sense for most of the ancient clocks to feature Roman numerals on their dials. The first mechanical clocks were created in Europe during the 13th century at a time when Roman numerals were still in use вЂ“ in addition to that, most clocks were mounted on churches, and Latin was the official Catholic language. However, this was well after the fall of the Roman Empire. Instead of the original additive notation, the Roman numeral system changed to the more familiar subtractive notation. However, these two numerals proved problematic,В they were easily confused with III and VIII. Earliest models did, in fact, use VIIIIВ for 9 (instead of IX) and IIII for 4 (instead of IV).

However, even though it is now widely accepted that 4 must be writtenВ IV, the original and most ancient pattern for Roman numerals wasnвЂ™t the same as what we know today. Grand Central Station, NYC вЂ“ IIII to mark 4 oвЂ™clock. The decline of Roman numerals coincides with the decline of Latin and the emergence of the Renaissance. Numbers in the Roman system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet.

ItвЂ™s only around the 14th century that Roman numerals began to be replaced by modern (and easier to use) Arabic numerals. IIII was the earliest way to write 4Д¬ommonly, Roman numerals are written this way: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII and so on.В Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome, approximately 1000BC, and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages, long after theВ decline of the Roman Empire. As always, such a question wonвЂ™t lead to a single and definitive answer, but here some of the possible explanations we found. ItвЂ™s now time to try to find an answer to this crucial question (irony mode on)вЂ¦ Jokes apart, even though it wonвЂ™t change the face of the world, it is interesting to understand why the watchmaking world almost unanimously decided to switch to the number IIII instead of the more common number IV. An exception to the rule, LondonвЂ™s large clock Big Ben relies on the numeral IV

Roman numbers in different languages