F70v2 and autocitation

[Jorge_Stolfi]

The numeral theory could work in one or two cases, but overall the idea that these represent numerals doesn't seem to hold up.

Both the Greek and the Romans denoted numerals with letters that were also used to write the language.  (And the custom of capitalizing Roman numerals is a modern thing.)


For no reason at all, here are the names of the planets in modern Vietnamese:

• Mercury thủy ngân
  
• Venus sao kim
  
• Mars sao hoả
  
• Jupiter sao mộc
  
• Saturn sao thổ
  
• Uranus sao thiên vương (I guess it literally means "Star of the God of Heavens"?)
  
• Neptune sao hải vương ("Star of the God of the Sea"?)
  

Here "sao" means "star".

In Mandarin the names are in reverse order, 

• Mercury 水星 shuǐxīng (Water Star)
  
• Venus 金星 jīnxīng (Gold Star)
  
• Mars 火星 huǒxīng (Fire Star)
  
• Jupiter 木星 mùxīng (Wood Star)
  
• Saturn 土星 tǔxīng (Earth Star)
  
• Uranus 天王星 tiānwángxīng (King of Heaven Star)
  
• Neptune 海王星 hǎiwángxīng (King of the Sea Star)
  
• Pluto 冥王星 míngwángxīng (King of Hell Star)
  

The planet names are related to the elements of Chinese alchemy.

All the best, --stolfi