Activity: Roles of Men, Women, and Children in Rome

Student Activity: Roles of Children in Ancient Rome

Let's pretend that you were one of the lucky children who could afford to go to school in ancient Rome. The following is a math activity that your teacher might have asked you to do in class. Complete the activity and learn how to read Roman numerals. The numerals used by Romans were different from the ones we use today. We still see them written on some things like fancy clocks or watches. Have you seen them anywhere else?

Roman Numerals

Romans only used seven symbols to write their numbers.

One is I.
Five is V.
Ten is X.
Fifty is L.
One hundred is C.
Five hundred is D.
One thousand is M.

When Romans needed to write the number four, they remembered that four is one less than five and wrote IV. If they wanted to write the number seven, they would remember it was five plus two, written VII.

Can you take out a piece of paper and write the Roman numerals for the numbers one through twenty? Try writing some other larger numbers like 352 or even 3501! Can you do it?

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