Watch Writing

Wander into the Saloon, past the fireplace and around the armchairs towards the door into the main Library. Tucked into the alcove, just before the door, is a longcase clock with Venetian red painted decoration on the body of the clock where the pendulums and weights are housed.

The face of the clock is in Roman numerals. Like many of you, I and my sisters were taught how to read these at school and it makes a fun game, almost like codebreaking. These numerals are now really only used for recording monumental dates but roman numerals are still understood in many different countries whatever their language and are part of the legacy of a communal language left to us by the Romans.

We all still use it – in the names of monarchs and popes, for example the late Elizabeth II or Pope Benedikt XVI or, in the USA, for sharing the same name across generations: John D. Rockefeller III.

You may remember a ‘V’ is 5, ‘X’ 10 and you could use a ‘I’ to add or subtract to create the number or read the number. Of course, there is then an ‘L’ for 50, ‘C’ for 100, ‘D’for 500 and  ‘M’ for 1000.

2024 = MMXXIV

1842= MIIXX XLII

1066 = M + LX + VI = MLXVI

Ironically however, there has never been an official nor universally accepted standard for roman numerals. Usage varied greatly in ancient Rome and even more so in medieval times. Maybe flexibility was one of its virtues though. One accepted way to notate 4 is IV but I have a watch with Roman numerals and 4 is written IIII. All the clocks at Highclere also seem to be written like this – they tend to be quite early clocks. However, a later, more famous clock, Big Ben, uses the more conventional IV for 4 o’clock.

Even the Romans were not consistent. XIIX is used for the 18th day given that the Latin word for 18 is duodeviginti, transaltion “two from twenty” but is was also, quite literally, written in stone as XVIII. The Colosseum in Rome, built between 72-80AD, had numbered entrances for spectators some of which – XXIII (23) to LIII(54) – survive.

Roman numerals were derived from Etruscan number symbols, for example ⟨⟩, ⟨⟩, ⟨⟩, ⟨⟩, for 1, 5, 10, 50… but neither had a notation for the number zero. The word nulla was often employed instead and later the letter N was used to represent 0 as can be seen in Bede’s writings dating from c. 725AD.

In order to record fractions, the Romans used the letter S which indicated 1/s and a duodecimal system which divided by 12. This was used in English currency for centuries in terms of pounds, shilling and pence. There were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. Shillings had a royal head embossed on them and were originally called testoon from ‘testa’ for head.

Today, the most common number system uses ten Arabic numerals – 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 – which does include a 0 symbol. This system was first mentioned in Europe in the 976 Codex Vigilanus but in turn was itself derived from an earlier Indian system. It is much easier to use for quicker and more complex mathematics but ironic that it was in Italy that it was first promoted – back to the Romans.

After all – what did the Romans do for us?

“Tempus omnia revelat” (Time reveals everything)