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Greek Histo
System
The Greek numbering system was
uniquely upon their alphabet.
Ionic Numeras
Began around 200 B.C
The Attic (or Herodianic) system of numerals was
the first numeral system used in ancient Greece.
"Attic"
refers to the Greek territory of Attica, while
"Herodianic" refers to Aelius Herodianus, a
grammarian of the 2nd century A.D. who described
the system in his writings.
The number 1 was represented by | (a vertical bar), but
the other five symbols were Greek letters:
5 was represented by Π (pi)—although this numeral
was often written with a short right tail, so it looked
similar to the Greek letter Γ (gamma).
10 by Δ (delta)
100 by Η (eta)
1000 by Χ (chi)
10,000 (called a Myriad) by Μ (mu)
Additive
Not positional
No zero
This system used the 24 letters in
the Greek alphabet, as well as three other symbols:
the digamma, which represented 6, the koppa, which
represented 90, and the sampi, which represented
900.
Additive
Not Positional
No zero
Symbols were the 24 letters of the 24 letters
of the Greek Alphabets and 3 obsolete
letters
alphabetical 1-9
alphabetical 10-90
Notice that 90 is represented by the symbol for the obsolete letter koppa.
alphabetical 100-900