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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