We can't say what real numbers were. Many people tend to think that graeco-roman witers were pathological liars who always disorted accounts. But if we start to think that way, we may just as well throw away ancient history and start to create theories that fit us.
Reasoning that "level of organisation that was needed wasn't reached until age of reason" shows arrogance of evolutionist thinking XIXth century scholars, who believed that all things developed to reach peak of civilisation it their time.

We need to look critically at our sources, but we can't just assume they are all wrong and start rewriting history to fit our concepts.