36
GREEK NUMERICAL NOTATION
(y) Mode of writing numbers in the ordinary alphabetic
notation.
Where, in the alphabetical notation, the number to be
written contained more than one denomination, say, units
with tens, or with tens and hundreds, the higher numbers
were, as a rule, put before the lower. This was generally the
case in European Greece ; on the other hand, in the inscrip
tions of Asia Minor, the smaller number comes hrst, i. e. the
letters are arranged in alphabetical order. Thus 111 may be
represented either by PIA or by AIR; the arrangement is
sometimes mixed, as PAI. The custom of writing the numbers
in descending order became more firmly established in later
times through the influence of the corresponding Roman
practice. 1
The alphabetic numerals sufficed in themselves to express
all numbers from 1 to 999. For thousands (up to 9000} the
letters were used again with a distinguishing mark ; this was
generally a sloping stroke to the left, e.g. 'A or ,A = 1000,
but other forms are also found, e.g. the stroke might be
combined with the letter as A = 1000 or again 'A= 1000,
‘C = 6000. For tens of thousands the letter M (yvpLoi) was
borrowed from the other system, e.g. 2 myriads would be
B
BM, MB, or M. •
To distinguish letters representing numbers from the
letters of the surrounding text different devices are used:
sometimes the number is put between dots j or :, or separ
ated by spaces from the text on both sides of it. In Imperial
times distinguishing marks, such as a horizontal stroke above
the letter, become common, e.g. rj fSovXy rcor X, other
variations being X*, X’, X and the like.
In the cursive writing with which we are familiar the
numbered on the same principle; so too the Alexandrine scholars
(about 280 b.c.) numbered the twenty-four Books of Homer with the
letters A to £2. When the number of objects exceeded 24, doubled
letters served for continuing the series, as AA, BB, &c. For example,
a large quantity of building-stones have been found; among these are
stones from the theatre at the Piraeus marked A A, BB, &c., and again
AAjBB, BB|BB, &c. when necessary. Sometimes the numbering by
double letters was on a different plan, the letter A denoting the full
number of the'first set of letters (24); thus AP would be 24+ 17 = 41,
1 Larfeld. op. cit., i, p. 426.
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