Should we put an end to Roman numerals?

The understanding argument

“A measure of universal accessibility. ” This is how the Carnavalet Museum, the history museum of the City of Paris, justifies its choice to get rid of Roman numerals. The goal: to facilitate the journey of people with disabilities, but also foreign customers, especially Asian, not used to this numbering. It only concerns centuries. A change already made by the Louvre four years ago, by the British Museum, in London, or the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam.

The bad faith argument

Let’s be honest, no one sent “Happy MMXXI year! “ to a friend on 1er January. Roman numerals, it’s funny in the sketches of the Unknowns, when Pascal Légitimus yells “To death Louis Croix vé stick!” “, but in real life, many people don’t really use it anymore. MCCCLXXXIX, CMLXVII, MCMXCVIII: this stuff is unreadable! So if Latin has become a dead language, so should Roman numerals.

The mathematical argument

The French copy is already pretty mediocre like that. The latest results of the Timss survey (which assesses students’ performance in mathematics, from CM1 to 4e) are worrying: France is ranked last among European countries evaluated and penultimate among OECD states. So we should already focus on the Arabic numerals before thinking of their Latin counterparts. These only reinforce the educational inequalities that already exist.

The counter-argument of understanding

The museum remains an ideal place to learn and stimulate one’s curiosity. This is the opportunity to take an interest in this numbering. Removing it from the signs will only lead to its disappearance: the less we see it, the less we will understand it. And the argument of only simplifying the centuries numbers doesn’t really make sense. Why is the visitor not embarrassed to read Louis XIV but would suddenly find himself lost in front of a work of the XIVe century? If we can keep Roman numerals for kings, we might as well keep them for centuries as well.

The bad faith counter-argument

Even today, Roman numerals are still popular. These past weekends, rugby fans have followed the exploits of the XV of France. Others will have seen the review XXI or comics XIII in bookstores, or watched episodes IV, V and VI of Star Wars. Even editions of the Super Bowl, the famous American football championship finale seen around the world, are numbered with Roman numerals. Proof that Latin culture also knows how to export.

The mathematical counter-argument

Roman numerals are not that hard to learn. It is not for nothing that they have crossed the millennia while still being readable, even non-specialists. There are only seven signs to master (I, V, X, L, C, D, M). You only need to look at it for an hour to understand everything. Come to think of it, learning them can even be more fun than learning Arabic numerals. Deciphering the number MCDLXVIII becomes a little enigma, like a game combining the meaning of symbols and reflection.