This is not the whole picture. This is just the first time it appears in inscription. The first zero in literature dates back another 300 years, and it appeared in different forms going back to the Babylonians. Pointing to one instance in an inscription and making up some mystical mumbo jumbo is too simplistic a treatment of it.
I explored this a couple of years back: http://mobilisinmobili.net/2011/11/10/value-nothing/
