I heard this in the context of civilizations being (un)willing to learn from other civilizations, and how this sort of cultural chauvinism can hold societies back.
I'm curious, did the context mention why using Roman numerals would hold a society back?
It was about NON-Romans. My guess is there wasn't much logic to the argument. It was just some xenophobia, probably anti-Arab or anti-Asian.
I've since found this.
"The Indo-Arabic system came to Europe around 1000 CE. Resistance ranged from accountants who didn’t want their livelihood upset to clerics who saw the system as ‘diabolical,’ since they incorrectly assumed its origin was Islamic. European commerce resisted until the 18th century, and even in scientific circles usage was limited into the 17th century."