What is the Roman Number for fourth December 2008?

Answer 1

The Romans didn't number their days the way we do. They had certain named days in a month and counted backwards from the nearest named day.

The named days were related to the phases of the Moon, and were the Kalends (from where we get the word calendar) which fell on the day of the new moon, the Nones which fell on the day of the first quarter, and the Ides, which fell on the day of the full moon.

Assuming that the month of December 2008 would have begun for a Roman on the 27th November, (the most recent New Moon), then the first few days would be

* Nov 27 ... Kal. * Nov 28 ... ante diem VII Non. Dec. (= 7th day of the Nones of December) * Nov 29 ... ante diem VI Non. Dec. (= 6th day of the Nones of December) * Nov 30 ... ante diem V Non. Dec. (= 5th day of the Nones of December) * Dec 1 ..... ante diem IV Non. Dec. (= 4th day of the Nones of December) * Dec 2 ..... ante diem III Non. Dec. (= 3rd day of the Nones of December) * Dec 3 ..... pr. Non. Dec. (= day before the Nones of December) * Dec 4 ..... Nonae So now we have the day sorted out, let's look at the year.

M was the Roman letter for 1,000, so 2000 would be MM

V Was the Roman letter for 5, and III was 3

So 2008 would have been MMVIII

Putting it all together, 4th December 2008 = Nonae December MMVIII