Akrophonobolos

Python package for handling Ancient Athenian monetary values in talents, drachmas and obols, including input and output in Greek acrophonic numerals (such as 𐅎, 𐅍, 𐅌, 𐅋, 𐅊, etc.)

Installation

pip install akrophonobolos

Usage

Read the full documentation on Read the Docs

Akrophonobolos provides functions for parsing, manipulating, and formatting Greek acrophonic numerals. It also provides a class, Khremata encapsulating these methods. Interally, the python fractions library is used to minimize issues caused by floating point arithmetic.

>>> import akrophonobolos as obol
>>> cash = obol.parse_greek_amount("Τ𐅅ΗΗΗΔ𐅂𐅂𐅂Ι𐅁")
>>> cash
Fraction(81759, 2)
>>> obol.format_amount(cash)
'1t 813d 1½b'
>>> obol.format_amount(cash, obol.Fmt.ENGLISH)
'1 talent, 813 drachmas, 1½ obols'
>>> obol.format_amount(cash, obol.Fmt.GREEK)
'Τ𐅅ΗΗΗΔ𐅂𐅂𐅂Ι𐅁'
>>> obol.format_amount(cash * 2)
'2t 1626d 3b'

Using the class:

>>> cash1 = obol.Khremata('1t')
>>> cash2 = obol.Khremata('300d 3b')
>>> cash1 + cash2
Khremata (1t 300d 3b [= 37803.0 obols])
>>> cash1 - cash2
Khremata (5699d 3b [= 34197.0 obols])
>>> cash1/cash2
Fraction(12000, 601)

There are functions for working with the sort of interest we see in inscriptions such as IG I³ 369.

>>> rate = obol.interest_rate("5t", 1, "1d")
>>> rate
Fraction(1, 30000)
>>> obol.loan_term("𐅊", "ΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔ", rate)
1397

The first line calculates the rate required for 1 drachma interest on 1 talent in 1 day. The last applies it to the amounts found on line 7 of that inscription for the principal (𐅊, 50 talents) and interest (ΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔ, 2 talents 1,970 drachmas) to determine that the loan term was 1,397 days.

This package also provides two command lin scripts. obol performs conversion and simple math:

$ obol 𐅉𐅉𐅈 348d "1d 5.5b" 14T1800D4O
𐅉𐅉𐅈 = 25 talents
348d = ΗΗΗΔΔΔΔ𐅃𐅂𐅂𐅂
1d 5.5b = 𐅂ΙΙΙΙΙ𐅁
14T1800D4O = 𐅉ΤΤΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΙΙΙΙ

$ obol 1t + 1000d
ΤΧ = 1t 1000d
$ obol 1t - 1000d
𐅆 = 5000d

logistes does loan calculations:

$ logistes -p 50t -d 1397
𐅊 (50t) at 10 drachmas per day for 1397 days = ΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔ (2t 1970d) interest
$ logistes -p 50t -i ΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔ
𐅊 (50t) at 10 drachmas per day for 1397 days = ΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔ (2t 1970d) interest
$ logistes -d 1397 -i ΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔ
𐅊 (50t) at 10 drachmas per day for 1397 days = ΤΤΧ𐅅ΗΗΗΗ𐅄ΔΔ (2t 1970d) interest

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/seanredmond/akrophonobolos