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The Alphabetic Numeral System in Attica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Marcus N. Tod
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Extract

When, in 1913, I published in this Annual (XVIII, 98 ff.) an account of the acrophonic numeral system in the Greek world, I hoped that within a short time I should be able to give a similar description of the other main system, the alphabetic. Owing to unforeseen difficulties, including two World Wars, that hope has not yet been realized, though I have contributed to the Annual two supplementary articles on the acrophonic numerals (XXVIII, 141 ff., XXXVII, 236 ff.), nor can I even now offer more than a first instalment of my study of the alphabetic system, in which I confine myself strictly to Attica, leaving to a separate article (which will, I hope, follow without undue delay) some account of those numerals as used elsewhere.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 45 , November 1950 , pp. 126 - 139
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1950

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References

1 Far shorter and less satisfactory than Larfeld's account is that of Roberts, E. S. and Gardner, E. A.Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, II, 475 f.Google Scholar, while that given in Meisterhans–Schwyzer, Grammatik der attischen Inschriften, 11, is not only meagre but misleading.

2 See my comments in BSA XXXVII, 246 f., Num Chron 1945, 114 f.

3 The inscription in question is a fragment of an Imperial letter, dating from the late second or early third century A.D.; by his transcription Μα· Βτ· the editor disguises the true nature of the numeral complex.

4 In a recent note (AJP LXIX, 419) J. A. Notopoulos cites all these examples except 1765; he does not call attention to the fact that they all indicate numbers between thirteen and nineteen, and the use of the phrase ‘cardinal numbers’ four times in the course of his brief note conceals the fact, which may well be significant, that all the numbers in question are not cardinal, but ordinal. It may be remarked that in English prose usage also the descending order is followed except for the numbers 13 to 19, where the unit precedes the ‘teen ’ (i.e. ‘ten’) in speech. In German, on the other hand, the unit is pronounced before the ten in any combination of the two except 11 and 12.

5 As I point out below (p. 132), it is not certain that the six examples afforded by 1367 are really relevant.

6 This use of numerals and words side by side may be illustrated by 980. 17 ἕνα καὶ 2499.4 δέκα ἔτη:ΗΗ: δραχμῶν 2500.4: ΗΗ : ἑκατὸν [δὲ δραχμς], 3199.10 f. ὁλκὴ λί(τραι) ἐννέα, | ὀνκίαι έ.Kirchner's comment on this last passage, ‘ὀνκίαι · θημῶνες, χώματα Hesych.’, is surprising, for the phrase clearly means ‘weight: nine pounds, 5 ounces’, and ὀγκία is a recognized variant of οὐγκία (LS9, s.v. οὐγ⋟α).

7 In some decrees the number is in apposition with the word βουλή e.g. 466.45 (307–6 B.C.) 687.52 f. (266 B.C.) 847.26 (ca. 214 B.C.) 1013.7 (late ii B.C.) 16

8 Examples are 1069.5 (late i B.C.), 4126 (not before 14 B.C.), [3247] (before A.D. 4), 2803, [4166], [3266] (A.D. 37–41), 3449 (ca. A.D. 50), 3277 (A.D. 61–2), [4188] (A.D. 64), [3788], 3907. If 4244 is rightly dated in i A.D., we must restore the assignment of 3664 to ‘fin. s. II/init. s. III p.’, based on prosopographical evidence (cf. A. Wilhelm, Beiträge, 95 f.), is incompatible with the appearance in it of

9 Examples are [1101.5], 1102.8, 3579, 3735–6, 3960–3, 3964 (Add. p. 351), 4062, 4210.14, 4211, [3311], [3391]. Hesp. X, 242, XVI, 174–5.

10 Besides the inscriptions already cited I note the following prose epitaphs: 7463, 7580, 7882, 9583, 9898, 9906, 10007, 10007, 10347a, 10770, 10964, 12409, 12595 (cf Oliver, J.H., Hesp. XI, 90)Google Scholar, 13011; the age of the dead is recorded in words in prose epitaphs 6153, 6636, 6797, 8358a, 11474, 12825, 13178.

11 Of the relevant epitaphs only 6153 and 6797 are those of ‘citizens,’ aged two and five years respectively. Unique is the case of Dexileos, whose years of birth and death are indicated by the names of the eponymous archons (6217).

12 Examples of childhood, 12629 (6 months), 10699a (15 months), 12960 (5 years), 12628, 10578a (6 years; for we must read ), 12516, 12599, 11674 (7 years); of young manhood, 13132 (16 years), 12393, 13009a (19 years), 7447, 9713, 11267, 11491 (20 years); old age, 13098 (70 years), 13150 (82 years), 13137 (90 years).

13 I cannot believe that in this inscription denotes denarii and δρ. drachmas; must here, I think, as in many places outside Attica, represent the drachma, in spite of the evidence of 2776.

14 In 1. 135 I am puzzled by the final which elsewhere in this inscription denotes a half-denarius, not a half-drachma. In 1. 153 the restoration takes a form not found elsewhere.

15 I do not understand the use here of the genitive τηῆ in place of the normal dative.

16 Examples are 1763–5, 1773–6, 1778, 1794, 1818, 1821, 1834.

17 Cf. also 3733.5 τρίτου 2040 τετἁρ[τῳ] 1762 τὀ ὄγδοον 1764.61, 2065.4 f. εἰκοστοῦ ἑβδόμου ἔτους κτλ

18 Cf. 2055.22, 2057.8, 2067.104, 2068.62, 2079.5, 2085.7, 2086.116, 2097.191 3012.6, 3740.8.

19 Other examples, in chronological order, are 1764.8 3390*, 1108.14*, 1109.3*, 2361.60, 3687.13, 24, 5210*, Hesp. XI, 71, of which those asterisked occur in Imperial titles. A doubtful example is 3269* (A.D. 41), where Graindor restored [ὕπατον] ἀπο- δεδειγμέ[νον τὸ δεύτερον but Kirchner, for reasons of space, substituted τὸ β´; elsewhere in the titulature of Claudius (3268.5, 3271.2, 3272.3) the word δεύτερον is written in full.

20 Examples, in chronological order, are 3274.5, 1969.4, 1945.3, 1970.5, 3542, 1990.3, 3277.4, 3539, 2883, and perhaps 3501. See also the preceding note. In 2827.6 and 2318.202, 317 πρῶτον without τό, is used as meaning ‘for the first time.’

21 For a full discussion of this inscription see J. Day, Economic History of Athens, 221 ff.

22 (1) 1102.6 (A.D. 131–2), 5204.7 (not before Commodus), 2773.13 (ca. A.D. 240).—(2) 10964.— (3) 9898—(4) 1764.7 (A.D. 138–9).—(5) 2776.54 98, 107, 109, 113 (A.D. 117–38), 1765.5 (A.D. 138–9).— (6) 2085.7 (A.D. 161–2), 13226.—(7) 3620.17 (A.D. 177–80).—(8) 2243.62 (after A.D. 243).—(9) 5204 20 (A.D. 395–408).—(10) 3229 C.

23 For this letter see Foat, F. W. G., JHS XXV, 338 ff.Google Scholar

24 On 13212 (ii A.D.) Kirchner comments = γίγνονται 2500 δηνάρια ᾿ δηνάρια ᾿ But the slanting stroke is the usual sign indicating thousands, not the symbol, common in papyri, for γίγνονται This inscription however, is not Attic, but Perinthian (Robert, L., Rev. Phil. XVIII, 40).Google Scholar

25 (1) 3638 (after 150).—(2) 3678.5 (ii–iii).—(3) 4210.14 (after 128–9).—(4) 2079.5 (158–9).—(5) 1072.10 (116).—(6) 3616 (late ii).—(7) 3669 (ca. 269–70).—(8) 13151 = Hesp. VII, 474.—(9) 2085.7 (161–2).—(10) 1778.3 (169–70).—(11) 1805.2 (190–200).—(12) 2086.116 (163–4).—(13) 1077·4 (209–10; as in IG III, 10).—(14) 3620.17 (177–80).—(15) 4060 (before 128–9).—(16) 3287A 4 (124–5).—(17) Hesp. XI, 71 = II, 507.—(18) 3449 (after 48).—(19) 3801 (mid ii).—(20) Hesp. XVI, 174.—(21) Hesp. X, 245.—(22) 1078.38 (ca. 220).—(23) 13226.—(24) 1834.12 (iii).—(25) 1774.6 (167–8).—(26) 3012.6 (158–9).—(27) 2361.60 (early iii).—(28) 9898 (end of ii).—(29) 2097.191 (169–70).—(30) 9906 (i–ii).—(31) 3284.4 (113).—(32) Hesp. II, 167 (179–80).—(33) 1763.6 (ca. 132–3).—(34) 3287 C4 (124–5).—(35) Hesp. II, 167 (179–80).—(36) 3931 (i).—(37) 3535.6 (ca. 57, as in IG III, 652).—(38) 13217 (ii–iii).—(39) 1368.40 (before 178).—(40) 2773.15 (ca. 240).—(41) 2130.40 (192–3). As the purpose of FIG. 2 is to illustrate the means used to distinguish numerals as such, the forms of the letters there shown are not in all cases absolutely exact.

26 See, e.g. Meisterhans-Schwyzer, Grammatik der attischen Inschriften, 11, ‘Das in alexandrinischer Zeit erfundene, ursprünglich, wie es scheint, nur für Ordinalzahlen berechnete 27–ziffrige System begegnet in Athen erst seit der Kaiserzeit und zwar bei Kardinal- wie bei Ordinalzahlen.’

27 It may be an early example of the custom, abundantly attested in the fourth and following centuries, of distinguishing individual members of a group of similar objects by the use of letters of the alphabet, which in such cases do not represent numerals, but distinctive ‘labels’; but why three stones should bear the same label, I cannot explain. So we may perhaps interpret 2515 ὅρος α and possibly 2543. See Meisterhans-Schwyzer, op. cit., 10.

28 BSA XVIII, 128 f. Of the inscriptions there cited IG II, 985 = II2, 2336, and AE 1884, 167 ff. = IG II2, 1035 (where it is dated early i B.C.). See also 1052.11 (after 50 B.C.) [δραχ]μἀς III, 2292.52 (ca. A.D. 40) ΔΔΓΔΙ.