Andrew Barss wrote:
Robatoy wrote:

Roman numerals are some sort of tally. And whoever thought that 4 =
IV has never looked at a clock with roman numerals. IIII


The Roman system is an interesting example of an astonishly bad
notation that arguably held the culture back. No way to divide or
multiply, for example. Or even a general method for adding and
subtracting.

Actually they did have a way to multiply. Google "Roman Numeral
Multiplication" and you'll find a number of descriptions of it.