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.

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 ē, 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 ἑκατόν. 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.

This number article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.