Isopsephy

A gematria of Latin script languages was also popular in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and its legacy remains an influence in code-breaking and numerology.

An early reference to isopsephy, albeit of more-than-usual sophistication (employing multiplication rather than addition), is from the mathematician Apollonius of Perga, writing in the 3rd century BC.

He asks: "Given the verse: ΑΡΤΕΜΙΔΟΣ ΚΛΕΙΤΕ ΚΡΑΤΟΣ ΕΞΟΧΟΝ ΕΝΝΕΑ ΚΟΥΡΑΙ ('Nine maidens, praise the glorious power of Artemis'), what does the product of all its elements equal?

Suetonius, writing in 121 AD, reports a political slogan that someone wrote on a wall in Rome: which appears to be another example.

[6][7] Also in the 1st century AD, Leonidas of Alexandria created isopsephs, epigrams with equinumeral distichs, where the first hexameter and pentameter equal the next two verses in numerical value.

This alphabetic system operates on the additive principle in which the numeric values of the letters are added together to form the total.