M

Sometimes it takes a 9 year old to make profound observations. While teaching Roman numerals to a group of 4th graders last month, we made a great discovery: the Romans didn't have much of an imagination.

While we were going through the ascending numerals, we ran into a wall. I, V, X, L, C, D, M.....and there it ends. So when a child asked me, "Mister, whats the Roman numeral for a million?" I realized that there was none. The Romans lived in a world of limits.

Being a huge nerd, I was much more excited about this discovery than the children, but it got me to thinking about worldviews. The Romans were the most advanced (which is not to say they weren't also barbaric) and forward-looking culture the world had seen.

They built, they conquered, they destroyed over unheard-of distances. They amassed unheard-of amounts of wealth, wrote countless words and documents, killed untold numbers of people, and dragged the world out of ancient times. The Roman eagle atop American flagpoles testifies to their lasting impact.

But they could not imagine a number over a thousand. There was no million. As big and as rich as their empire was, there was no concept of a million miles or a millionaire. As relatively advanced as they were in math, science, and history, there was no concept of a million tons or a million years.

M was the limit. Everything, absolutely everything, could be expressed in numbers no greater than one or two thousand. Even to write 10,000 in Roman numerals would be the clumsy and inelegant MMMMMMMMMM. If such a concept as a million existed, it would require writing M one thousand times.

It is one of the many ironies of history that civilization advanced as far as it did within such a limited and circumscribed worldview. Even a great empire, a great builder, a great killer of prophets, and a great shaper of modernity had its limits. And the limit was surprisingly low.