Ok so im about to pass out and then I thought of this and now its bothering me..
the year is 2014 and the first time machine is invented, I go x years in the future and hand a man a guide to roman numerals. He then goes in his time machine, goes back to the days of ancient rome and gives a man the guide to create roman numerals, thus creating the concept.
So in this case, who established the roman numeral system?