"The Cimbri met the joint forces of Marius and Catlus on the Raudian plain near the city of Vercellae." (p. 22)
"Catlus" should be "Catulus." See the Wikipedia article here.
"It was on the third day before the new moon in the month Sextilis, which is now called August." (ibid.)
The Romans did not just number the days of a month as we do but instead had a complicated system of days before or after the "Ides" or "Nones." See here. In Ys, this somehow led to Gratillonius' men attending the theater to see a comedy play on the wrong day - but enjoying the more serious play that they saw instead. In The Golden Slave, we are not told which day in August but instead are told the third day before the new moon in that month.
"The Romans numbered 52,300; no one had counted the Cimbri, but it is said each side of their army took up thirty furlongs and that they had 15,000 horses." (ibid.)
Thus, a major engagement - and the end of the Cimbri.
Ironically, we now use "Arabic" (really Indian) numerals and have no difficulty in understanding them. Is anyone out there able to translate "52,300" and "15,000" into Roman numerals?
3 comments:
Paul:
According to Wikipedia (and confirming what I'd suspected), no one can — not by an authoritative, fully-agreed-on method, anyway. "Since the system has no standard symbols for 5,000 and 10,000, the full pattern cannot be extended to the multiples of 1000 – restricting the 'thousands' range of 'normal' Roman numerals to 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000..." And "There is not, and never has been, an 'official', 'binding', or universally accepted standard for Roman numerals."
I'd thought I remembered some use of underscores. Wikipedia tells me there was, instead, an "overline" known as the vinculum, by adding which "conventional Roman numerals are multiplied by 1,000. Although mathematical historian David Eugene Smith disputes that this was part of ancient Roman usage, the notation was certainly in use in the Middle Ages, and is sometimes suggested as a workable method for modern use, although it is not standardised as such."
David,
Thanks. I have been working towards another post on this question and might still write one but you have essentially answered the question already.
Paul.
Kaor, DAVID!
And this brings to mind how the cumbersome and inadequate Roman numbering system was a serious drag in developing science and mathematics in the West until Indo/Arabic numbers finally reached Europe. I think sometime after AD 1300?
Ad astra! Sean
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