Roman striking Roman striking is a striking method in which at each hour, the mechanism strikes one blow on the high bell for each Roman I, and one blow on the low bell for each Roman V. Furthermore, the mechanism strikes two blows on the low bell to sound out the latest four hours – those containing the Roman X. Roman-striking clocks have a true Roman IV in the chapter ring, instead of the traditional IIII. This striking method was devised by Joseph Knibb and used for his Roman-Striking Table Clock dated 1677. This type of striking was not very popular, because it was not intuitively understood and required detailed explanation.