domain, which covered a large part of north-central Italy. The Roman numerals, in particular, are directly derived from the Etruscan number symbols: , , , , and for 1, 5, 10, 50, and 100 (they had more symbols for larger numbers, but it is unknown which symbol represents which number). As in the basic Roman system, the Etruscans wrote the symbols that added to the desired number, from higher to lower value. Thus, the number 87, for example, would be written 50 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 1 + 1 = 𐌣𐌢𐌢𐌢𐌡𐌠𐌠 (this would appear as 𐌠𐌠𐌡𐌢𐌢𐌢𐌣 since Etruscan was written from right to left.) The symbols and resembled letters of the Etruscan alphabet, but , , and did not. The Etruscans used the subtractive notation, too, but not like the Romans. They wrote 17, 18, and 19 as 𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌢𐌢, 𐌠𐌠𐌢𐌢, and 𐌠𐌢𐌢, mirroring the way they spoke those numbers ("three from twenty", etc.); and similarly for 27, 28, 29, 37, 38, etc. However, they did not write 𐌠𐌡 for 4 (nor 𐌢𐌣 for 40), and wrote 𐌡𐌠𐌠, 𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠 and 𐌡𐌠𐌠𐌠𐌠 for 7, 8, and 9, respectively. Early Roman numerals The early Roman numerals for 1, 10, and 100 were the Etruscan ones: , , and . The symbols for 5 and 50 changed from and to and at some point. The latter had flattened to (an inverted T) by the time of Augustus, and soon afterwards became identified with the graphically similar letter . The symbol for 100 was written variously as or , and was then abbreviated to or , with (which matched the Latin letter C) finally winning out. It might have helped that C was the initial letter of CENTUM, Latin for "hundred". The numbers 500 and 1000 were denoted by or overlaid with a box or circle. Thus, 500 was like a superimposed on a or , making it look like . It became or by the time of Augustus, under the graphic influence of the letter . It was later identified as the letter ; an alternative symbol for "thousand" was a , and half of a thousand or "five hundred" is the right half of the symbol, , and this may have been converted into . The notation for 1000 was a circled or boxed : Ⓧ, , , and by Augustinian times was partially identified with the Greek