Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

NAVIS. NAVIS. 783
lated according to naucraries. Cleisthenes in his pelling the vessel lay in the rowers, who sat upon
change of the Solonian constitution retained the benches ('Arq'X es). The oars were fastened to the
division into naucraries for military and financial side of the ship with leathern thongs (rpo7rol 3eppurposes (Phot. 1. c.), but he increased their num- u=drivol, Od. iv. 782), in which they were turned
ber to fifty, making five of each of his ten tribes, as a key in its hole. The ships in Homer are
so that now the number of their ships was in- mostly called black (eAaw'ate), probably because
creased from forty-eight to fifty, and that of horse- they were painted or covered with a black submen from ninety-six to one hundred. The state- stance, such as pitch, to protect the wood against
ment of Herodotus (vi. 89) that the Athenians in the influence of the water and the air; sometimes
their war against Aegina had only fifty ships of other colours, such as JlAxros, minium (a red cotheir own, is thus perfectly in accordance with the lour), were used to adorn the sides of the ships
fifty naucraries of Cleisthenes. The functions of near the prow, whence Homer occasionally calls
the former vadKpapoL, asthe heads of their respective ships t7xro7Trdpot, i. e. red-cheeked (II. ii. 637,
naucraries, were now transferred to the demarchs. Od. ix. 125); they were also painted occasionally
[DEMARCHI.] (Harpocrat. s. v. A17iapXos.) The with a purple colour (poIvKco7raippoL, Od. xi. 124).
obligation of each naucrary to equip a ship of war Herodotus says (iii. 58) that all ships were painted
for the service of the republic may be regarded as with tlXTros. When the Greeks had landed on
the first form of trierarchy. (Lex. Rhetor. p. 283.) the coast of Troy, the ships were drawn on land,
As the system of trierarchy became developed and and fastened at the poop to large stones with a
established, this obligation of the naucraries ap- rope which served as anchors (I1. i. 436, xiv. 77,
pears to have gradually ceased and to have fallen Od. ix. 137, xv. 498; Moschopul. ad II. i. 436).
into disuse. (Compare TRIERARCHIA.) [L. S.] The Greeks then surrounded the fleet with a fortiNAUCRARUS. [NAUCRARIA.] fication to secure it against the attacks of the
NAVIS (vais). The beginning of the art of enemy. This custom of drawing the ships upon
ship-building and of navigation among the Greeks the shore, when they were not used, was followed
must be referred to a time much anterior to the in later times also, as every one will remember
ages of which we have any record. Even in the from the accounts in Caesar's Commentaries. There
earliest mythical stories long voyages are men- is a celebrated but difficult passage in the Odyssey
tioned, which are certainly not altogether poetical (v. 243, &c.), in which the building of a boat is
fabrications, and we have every reason to suppose described, although not with the minuteness which
that at that early age ships were used which were an actual ship-builder might wish for. Odysseus
far superior to a simple canoe, and of a much more first cuts down with his axe twenty trees, and precomplicated structure. The time, therefore, when pares the wood for his purpose by cutting it smooth
boats consisted of one hollow tree (Monoxyla), or and giving it the proper shape. He then bores
when ships were merely rafts (Rates, orXEiael) the holes for nails and hooks, and fits the planks
tied together with leathern thongs, ropes, and together and fastens them with nails. He rounds
other substances (Plin. H. N. vii. 57), belongs to the bottom of the ship like that of a broad transa period of which not the slightest record has port vessel, and raises the bulwark (scpia), fitting
reached us, although such rude and simple boats it upon the numerous ribs of the ship. He afteror rafts continued occasionally to be used down wards covers the whole of the outside with planks,
to the latest times, and appear to have been very which are laid across the ribs from the keel upcommon among several of the barbarous nations wards to the bulwark; next the mast is made,
with which the Romans came in contact. (CODEx; and the sail-yard attached to it, and lastly the
compare Quintil. x. 2; Flor. iv. 2; Fest. s. v. rudder. When the ship is thus far completed, he
Scitedia; Liv. xxi. 26.) Passing over the story of raises the bulwark still higher by wickerwork
the ship Argo and the expedition of the Argonauts, which goes all around the vessel, as a protection
we shall proceed to consider the ships as described against the waves. This raised bulwark of wicker.in the Homeric poems. work and the like was used in later times also.
The numerous fleet, with which the Greeks (Eustath. ad Od. v. 256.) For ballast Odysseus
are said to have sailed to the coast of Asia Minor, throws into the ship SAdX, which according to.the
must on the whole be regarded as sufficient evi- Scholiast consisted of wood, stones, and sand.
dence of the extent to which navigation was car- Calypso then brings him materials to make a sail
ried on in those times, however much of the detail of, and he fastens the V7rEpan or ropes which run
in the Homeric description may have arisen from from the top of the mast to the two ends of the
the poet's own imagination. In the Homeric cata- yard, and also the KciXo with which the sail is
logue it is stated that each of the fifty Boeotian drawn up or let down. The 7rodes mentioned in
ships carried 120 warriors (II. ii. 510), and a ship this passage were undoubtedly, as in the later
which carried so many cannot have been of very times, the ropes attached to the two lower corners
small dimensions. What Homer states of the of the square sail. (Comp. Nitzsch. Anmerk. z.
Boeotian vessels applies more or less to the ships Odyss. vol. ii. p. 35, &c.; Ukert, Benierk. iiber
of other Greeks. These boats were provided with Hose. Geogr. p. 20.) The ship of which the
a mast (lords) which was fastened by two ropes building is thus described was a small boat, a
(7rpdoTomL) to the two ends of the ship, so that eXE8ia as Homer calls it; but it had like all the
when the rope connecting it with the prow broke, Homeric ships a round or flat bottom. Greater
the mast would fall towards the stern, where it ships must have been of a more complicated strucmight kill the helmsman. (Od. xii, 409, &c.) ture, as ship-builders are praised as artists. (1.
The mast could be erected or taken down as ne- v. 60, &c.) Below, under Cerucli, a representcessity required. They also had sails (o'Tria), ation of two boats is given which appear to bear
but no deck 5 each vessel however appears to great resemblance to the one of which the building
have had only one sail, which was used in fa- is described in the Odyssey. (Comp. Thirlwall,
vourable wind; and the principal means of pro- Hist. of Greece, vol. i. p. 219.)