How did the ancient Greeks and Romans pronounce numbers?

by motorboatbwbwb

They didn't use the Arabic numeral system therefore it seems unlikely to me that they named them one, two, three, four, five ...587 etc.

Using the Arabic numeral system 587 becomes five hundred eighty seven. The same number using the Greek number system becomes DLXXXVII.

How did they pronounce that? Delta Lambda Deca Deca Deca Penta Iota Iota?

Thanks!

(Forgive my English, ESL)

talondearg

To add further, Greeks didn't generally use Roman numerals. They used Greek words for numbers. They would say the equivalent of 'five hundred and eighty-seven' in Greek.

There was a Greek short-hand way of writing numbers, generally involving using a letter for a numeral, sometimes with an accompanying mark (similar to an apostrophe or comma) to indicate order of magnitude.

Here's a weblink that has a brief description of ancient Greek numerals.

Searocksandtrees

hi! not discouraging other responses, but do check out this related post