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Topic: I, II, III, and Next Is.... Post ReplyPost New Topic
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 19 March 2018 at 10:12am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

...IV.

Or not, according to II articles I read today. Apparently the Romans didn't use IV for 4. Since they spelled Jupiter "IVPPITER" they didn't want to offend the Big Guy by putting part of his name on sundials and such. So they used IIII, just as is still seen on some clock faces.

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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 19 March 2018 at 10:14am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Amazing what one learns each day. First time I've come across this information!
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Michael Penn
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Posted: 19 March 2018 at 10:57am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Coincidentally, my son-in-law observed a short while ago to me that a watch he purchased had IIII instead of IV -- which led my wife to pay attention to her watch and, yes, it too had IIII. Tried googling for an answer. Apparently something about the face looking unbalanced with IV -- and apparently this has been a standard practice for a hundreds of years.

Anyway, this thread has made me look up Roman 4 and, yes, the Romans had an accepted IIII usage.




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Peter Martin
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Posted: 19 March 2018 at 1:07pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Strange how you don't notice things sometimes -- if I'd been asked to guess what the fourth number on my watch dial was, I'd have said IV and yet it is IIII now that I look at it.

But use IIII in general? I had rather be a dog and bay the moon than such a Roman.
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 19 March 2018 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

This topic has taught me that there is so much we take for granted, but it's interesting to delve into things.

I learnt the reason "LB" is used for pounds just the other day. I'd written down "LB" without ever wondering why.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 19 March 2018 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

Years ago, a couple of Swedish fans won a trip to New York and the chance to meet their favorite Marvel artist, which turned out to be yours truly.

They showed me some characters they'd created, presented in OHOTMU style. They said that in following that layout the only thing they didn't know was what "Ibs" was.

Raised on metric, they had no idea "lbs" meant "pounds" and were interpreting the lower case L as an upper case I. They spelled it "Ibs" and pronounced it accordingly.

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Eric Smearman
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Posted: 19 March 2018 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

When I was a kid, my parents had a clock in our dining
room that used IIII as 4. When learning Roman numerals in
school, I was confused when told that IV was the commonly
accepted 4.
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Robbie Parry
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Posted: 20 March 2018 at 5:30am | IP Logged | 8 post reply

So do I now write SUPERMAN IIII: THE QUEST FOR PEACE, SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE or just ignore the film completely? 
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Steve Coates
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Posted: 20 March 2018 at 9:37am | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Just the other day I was indexing Challengers of the Unknown By Jack Kirby at the GCD. Varied chapter notations were used in the original series and their stories in Showcase, so careful review was necessary. I found the notation "IIII" was used for chapter four of Challengers of the Unknown #4. 

Previous indexers had "corrected" the notation to "IV". Nice to know it is correct as originally printed.
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 20 March 2018 at 10:19am | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Psst. Robbie. Just let 'em go, pal. Let 'em go. Go watch "Superman the Movie" or some of the Filmation Superman cartoons. "Quest for a Plot" wasn't worth the electricity to turn on the TV.
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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 20 March 2018 at 11:12am | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Those Romans really enjoyed their IIIIplay?
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Andrew Bitner
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Posted: 20 March 2018 at 11:27am | IP Logged | 12 post reply

BeIIII we go...
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