So what sort of numerals did the Greeks use at about the time Romans were using roman numerals?
Wiki has a good page on Greek numerals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_numerals
Looks like prior to 400 BC they used an unwieldy alphabet-related system which was the precursor to the Roman numeral system. After 400 BC they used a different but still unwieldy alphabetic system. I’m guessing this lasted until around the Middle Ages when Europe adopted Arabic numerals.
Wiki also has a good page on Arabic numberals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numerals
I didn’t realize that Arabic numerals were called “Hindu numerals” by the Arabs. They were purely an Indian invention. The only reason we know them as Arabic numerals is that it was the Arabs who passed them along to Europe.
We should remember that what we call Roman numerals were called by the Romans, numerals. ;’) [insert Chinese food joke here]
Number systems were often peculiar to a town or an area; the Sumerians never had a single system for recording numbers, but rather used locally developed systems. Perhaps this shows how writing systems in general formed, and how recordkeeping only became abstract after abstract thinking had an interface and humans a way of expressing their abstractions.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2527412/posts?page=45#45
numbers in Linear A:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1173901/posts?page=13#13
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1202723/posts?page=10#10
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1289143/posts?page=12#12
other:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2658658/posts?page=22#22