this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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Funny enough, Decimus means something similar - 'Tenth'. A lot of Roman praenomina (first names) were like that. Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus, Sextus, Septimus, Octavius, Nonus, Decimus. First through tenth! Not the most creative fellows, the Romans.
In their defense, birth order rarely correlated with their name - Decimus could just as easily be a firstborn child, or the fifth son.
This is something, I find more weird than defending. Or, in other words, TIL Romans were bad at counting.
Of course they were. I give you proof they're even worse at math. Tell me quick, how much is
CMDIV + CCDDVIII
You actually needed to be 'very good' at math to fluently calculate with Roman numbers. However, I can't make sense of your examples.