THE ‘HERODIANIC’ SIGNS
31
sort. The
;ers of the
m in use in
/stem and
the set of
se they are
q, a gram-
A. D. The
the writer
aws, where
is notation,
3nt inscrip-
laim to be
mpendia or
>ke I repre-
i full words
were repre
senting the
rst letter of
) for 10, H
000, and M
), 500, 5000
other signs
(10),= 50;
= 50000.
ibols, and all
»resented are
so that each
n four times;
Y»r example,
AAAAP1111
are found in
utside Attica
the symbols
;al alphabets.
00, i>E =500,
, vol. viii.
V = 1000, = 6000; and fTO HE KE HEi>>I! I = 5823. But,
in consequence of the political influence of Athens, the Attic
system, sometimes with unimportant modifications, spread to
other states. 1
In a similar manner compendia were used to denote units
of coinage or of weight. Thus in Attica T = raXavrov (6000
drachmae), M = pvd (1000 drachmae), Z or S = (rrarrjp
(l/3000th of a talent or 2 drachmae), h = Spa\pi7, I = o/3oX6s
(l/6th of a drachma), C = rjyioo^iXioi' (l/l2th of a drachma),
3 or T = TerapTrjpopiov (l/4th of an obol or l/24th of a
drachma), X = x^A/coth (l/8th of an obol or l/48th of a
drachma). Where a number of one of these units has to be
expressed, the sign for the unit is written on the left of that
for the number; thus HP AI = 61 drachmae. The two com
pendia for the numeral and the unit are often combined into
one ; e.g. ff, F 1 = 5 talents, |P = 50 talents, H = 100 talents,
[^= 500 talents, Q= 1000 talents, ^=10 minas, P = 5 drach
mae, 10 staters, &c.
(/3) The ordinary alphabetic numerals.
The second main system, used for all kinds of numerals, is
that with which we are familiar, namely the alphabetic
system. The Greeks took their alphabet from the Phoe
nicians. The Phoenician alphabet contained 22 letters, and,
in appropriating the different signs, the Greeks had the.
happy inspiration to use for the vowels, which were not
written in Phoenician, the signs for certain spirants for which
the Greeks had no use; Aleph became A, He was used for E,
Yod for I, and Ayin for O; when, later, the long E was
differentiated, Cheth was used, B or H. Similarly they
utilized superfluous signs for sibilants. Out of Zayin and
Samech they made the letters Z and S. The remaining two
sibilants were Ssade and Shin. From the latter came the
simple Greek Z (although the name Sigma seems to corre
spond to the Semitic Samech, if it is not simply the ‘ hissing ’
letter, from ctl£co). Ssade, a softer sibilant [ = a-a), also called
San in early times, was taken over by the Greeks in the
place it occupied after H, and written in the form M or V\.
The form T (= era) appearing in inscriptions of Halicarnassus
1 Larfeld, Handbuch der griechischen Epigraphik, vol. i, p. 417.
