What was the year “1999” in Roman Numerals? Why wasn’t it “MIM” (a thousand, plus one less than a thousand)?
I always thought the rule was that you could only “subtract” units that were one order of magnitude less —
IX = 9, XC = 90, CM = 900, but not IC = 99 or IM = 999.
If I’m correct then 1999 would be MCMXCIX – which still has a certain elegance, IMO, if not the symmetry of MIM.
And would the Y2K problem have been the AMM problem in Rome?
Here’s the answer from Cecil:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_375.html
Interestingly (to me anyway), this is the second time in one hour that I’ve posted this link to the GQ forum.
Arjuna34