Arithmancy
(Sometimes called wrongly Arithmomancy).
Divination by means of numbers. The Greeks examined the number and value of the letters in the names of two combatants, and predicted that he whose name contained most letters, or letters of the greatest value, would be the victor. It was by means of this science that some diviners foretold that Hector would be overcome by Achilles. The Chaldeans, who also practised it, divided their alphabet into three parts, each composed of seven letters, which they attributed to the seven planets, in order to make predictions from them. The Platonists and the Pythagoreans were also strongly addicted to this method of divination, which comprehends also a part of the Jewish Kabala.