Velocipede Rider on Nostr: Early Roman numerals often used additive notation (e.g. IIII or VIIII) before ...

Early Roman numerals often used additive notation (e.g. IIII or VIIII) before subtractive forms like IV and IX became the "modern standard". Both are valid. Indeed the two conventions sometimes even get used together (and not just on clock faces), often in the same text or even sometimes in the same numeral. On the numbered gates to the Colosseum for example, the additive notation IIII is used but subtractive notation is used for XL (40). Thus you get gate 44 labelled as XLIIII.