Here's a regular expression solution:
function deromanize(roman) {
var r = 0;
// regular expressions to check if valid Roman Number.
if (!/^M*(?:D?C{0,3}|C[MD])(?:L?X{0,3}|X[CL])(?:V?I{0,3}|I[XV])$/.test(roman))
throw new Error('Invalid Roman Numeral.');
roman.replace(/[MDLV]|C[MD]?|X[CL]?|I[XV]?/g, function(i) {
r += {M:1000, CM:900, D:500, CD:400, C:100, XC:90, L:50, XL:40, X:10, IX:9, V:5, IV:4, I:1}[i];
});
return r;
}