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N.S.Gill's Ancient History Blog

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide to Ancient History since 1997

Greek Mathematics

Tuesday September 16, 2003
Instead of using the numerals 1, 2, 3, etc., the Greeks used the letters of the alphabet, so they represented one with their first letter, alpha; 2 with their second letter, beta, etc. BBC News reports that the Greek alphabetic numeral system may not have been invented by the Greeks. Instead, the Greeks may have borrowed it from the Egyptians.
Greeks 'borrowed Egyptian numbers'
MORE: Greek Mathematics
Elsewhere: Greek Language Instruction and Pronunciation

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