| 1 [[267]] | |
| 2 [[268]] | |
| 3 [[269]] | |
| 4 [[270]] | |
| 5 [[271]] | |
| 6 [[271]] |
The question of the possible influence of the Egyptian demotic and hieratic ordinal forms has been so often suggested that it seems well to introduce them at this point, for comparison with the ġobār forms. They would as appropriately be used in connection with the Hindu forms, and the evidence of a relation of the first three with all these systems is apparent. The only further resemblance is in the Demotic 4 and in the 9, so that the statement that the Hindu forms in general came from
this source has no foundation. The first four Egyptian cardinal numerals[[272]] resemble more the modern Arabic.
This theory of the very early introduction of the numerals into Europe fails in several points. In the first place the early Western forms are not known; in the second place some early Eastern forms are like the ġobār, as is seen in the third line on p. [69], where the forms are from a manuscript written at Shiraz about 970 A.D., and in which some western Arabic forms, e.g.
This large question[[273]] suggests several minor ones: (1) Who was Boethius? (2) Could he have known these numerals? (3) Is there any positive or strong circumstantial evidence that he did know them? (4) What are the probabilities in the case?
First, who was Boethius,—Divus[[274]] Boethius as he was called in the Middle Ages? Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius[[275]] was born at Rome c. 475. He was a member of the distinguished family of the Anicii,[[276]] which had for some time before his birth been Christian. Early left an orphan, the tradition is that he was taken to Athens at about the age of ten, and that he remained there eighteen years.[[277]] He married Rusticiana, daughter of the senator Symmachus, and this union of two such powerful families allowed him to move in the highest circles.[[278]] Standing strictly for the right, and against all iniquity at court, he became the object of hatred on the part of all the unscrupulous element near the throne, and his bold defense of the ex-consul Albinus, unjustly accused of treason, led to his imprisonment at Pavia[[279]] and his execution in 524.[[280]] Not many generations after his death, the period being one in which historical criticism was at its lowest ebb, the church found it profitable to look upon his execution as a martyrdom.[[281]] He was