Britannica Sources used in this answer

How does a vinculum change the value of a Roman numeral?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

In the context of Roman numerals, a vinculum—also referred to as a virgula—is a horizontal bar placed over a numeral to indicate that its value should be multiplied by 1,000.1

For example, if a bar is placed over the numeral V (which represents 5), the resulting value becomes 5,000. This method was developed toward the end of the Roman Republic to facilitate the representation of larger numbers, and its use persisted into the Middle Ages. Additionally, the vinculum also came to be used to represent ordinal numbers.1