Attic numerals
Attic numerals were used by
ancient Greeks, possibly from the
7th century BC. They were also known as
Herodianic numerals because they were first described in a
2nd century manuscript by
Herodianus. They are also known as
acrophonic numerals because all of the symbols used (except for 1) derive from the first letters of the words for 'five', 'ten', 'hundred', 'thousand' and 'ten thousand'. See
Greek numerals and
acrophony.
| Decimal | Symbol!Greek numeral |
|---|
| 1 | Ι | " |
| 5 | Π | πεντε ("pente") |
| 10 | Δ | δέκα ("deka") |
| 100 | Η | ἑκατόν ("hekaton") |
| 1000 | Χ | χίλιοι ("khilioi") |
| 10000 | Μ | μυριάς ("myrias") |
The use of Η for 100 reflects the early date of this numbering system: Η (
Eta) in the early Attic alphabet represented
h whereas in classical Greek it came to be used for
", and the
spiritus asper was invented to represent
h. Thus the word for a hundred would originally have been written ΗΕΚΑΤΟΝ, as compared to the classical spelling . The number value can exceed 1,000,000 without writing too many numerals. Unlike the more familiar
Roman numeral system, the Attic system contains only additive forms. Thus, the number 4 is written
ΙΙΙΙ, rather than the Roman style
IV.
