Roman numerals are
          much more complicated and much less consistent

than most people
          realise.�� The regular M DC LX VI system is both

more modern and less
          capable than anything the Romans would have

recognised.�� In
          particular,

��- in the 8th century,
          N (short for "nulla") was adopted for zero

��- the Roman system
          always had fractions like S for 1/2, . for 1/12

��- there were numerals
          for much larger numbers.

Unicode code block
          [2150] has characters for the Roman numerals

including

216C L ROMAN NUMERAL
          FIFTY

          216D C ROMAN NUMERAL ONE HUNDRED

          216E D ROMAN NUMERAL FIVE HUNDRED

          216F M ROMAN NUMERAL ONE THOUSAND

2181 ��� ROMAN NUMERAL
          FIVE THOUSAND

          2182 ��� ROMAN NUMERAL TEN THOUSAND

          2187 ��� ROMAN NUMERAL FIFTY THOUSAND

          2188 ��� ROMAN NUMERAL ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND

(In fact these are
          ligated versions of forms using "apostrophic" brackets;

the pattern goes as
          high as you want, e.g., (((|))) for a million.

D and M were
          originally |) and (|).���� There is

So the first thing is
          to make sure that you understand the

requirements for the
          problem.

- Are you required to
          produce ASCII characters, required to

�� produce Unicode
          ones, or allowed to produce either?