Swagg::Net::Guestbook

Roman numerals being created by the Romans is a myth. The Roman numeral was actually created and used by a group of gallic tribes in Northern France. Rome eventually took over that area but the Gallic tribes maintained a sense of independence and kept utilizing the system for themselves. As the northern gallic tribes became more and more integrated into Rome, they started to benefit greatly from trade because of their easy access to both Rome and their sea trade routes to the Baltic states. As a result of that, they developed a heavily mercantile culture which ultimately resulted in more and more of them doing direct business in Rome. The reason why we think Rome had the numeral system is exactly because the records that survived were the ones which were made by the northern Gauls. We have more recently discovered that Romans themselves counted by smearing poop on walls like tally marks. It made it really difficult for them to count over a hundred, especially since they would sometimes just run out of poop. There was even an entire system created to solve this problem where the Roman senate (and later the emporers themselves) pooped in this one really big pot so all of Rome could continue counting. In at least one instance, a warehouse which had a huge supply of tally-marking poop caught on fire. It is said that all of Rome smelt numbers for weeks.