Greek numerals

Greek numerals is a system of representing numbers using the numbers of the Greek alphabet. These alphabetic numerals are also known by names Ionic or Ionian numerals, Milesian numerals, and Alexandrian numerals. In modern Greece, they are still used for ordinal numbers and in situations similar to those in which Roman numerals are still used elsewhere in the West. For ordinary cardinal numbers, however, Greece uses Arabic numerals.

History

The Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations' Linear A and Linear B alphabets used a different system, called Aegean numerals, which included specialized symbols for numbers: 𐄇 = 1, 𐄐 = 10, 𐄙 = 100, 𐄢 = 1000, and 𐄫 = 10000.

Attic numerals, which were later adopted as the basis for Roman numerals, were the first alphabetic set. They were acrophonic, derived (after the initial one) from the first letters of the names of the numbers represented. They ran  = 1,  = 5,  = 10,  = 100,  = 1000, and  = 10000. 50, 500, 5000, and 50000 were represented by the letter with minuscule powers of ten written in the top right corner: , , , and . The same system was used outside of Attica, but the symbols varied with the local alphabets: in Boeotia, was 1000.