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

NAUTODICAE. NEBRISS. 793
manent one; it continued to be used after others rights of a phrator without his father and mother
had been made, and was subsequently called the being citizens, shows that their institution must,"vetus naumachia." (Suet. Tit. 7; Dion Cass. belong to a time when it was sufficient for a mall
lxvi. 25; Ernesti, ad Slet. Tib. 72.) Claudius ex- to be a citizen if only his father was a citizen,
hibited a magnificent sea-fight on the lake Fucinus. whatever his mother might be, that is, previous to
(Tacit. Ann. xii. 56; Suet. Claud. 21; Dion Cass. the time of Pericles (Plut. Pericl. 37; compare
Ix. 33.) Nero appears to have preferred the am- CIVITAS, p. 289), and perhaps as early as the
phitheatre for these exhibitions. (Dion Cass. lxi. time of Cleisthenes. The liautodicae were ap9, lxii. 15.) Domitian made a new naumachia, pointed every year by lot in the month of Gamelion,
and erected a building of stone around it, in which and probably attended to the 8fal ar r4pauwv, only
the spectators might sit to see the engagement. during the winter, when navigation ceased, whereas
(Dion Cass. lxvi. 8; Suet. Doma. 4, 5.) Representa- the 8hcal ~evlia. might be brought before them all
tions of naumachiae are sometimes given on the the year round.
coins of the emperors. (Scheffer, de Militia Narali, It is a well known fact that the two actions
iii. 2. pp. 189, 191.) (Utca /ulr~dpwv and Uicat Evlas) which we hava
The combatants in these sea-fights, called Naot- here assigned to the nautodicae, belonged, at least
ntachiarii (Suet. Claud. 21), were usually captives at one time, to the thesmothetae. (Meier, Alt.
(Dion Cass. xlviii. 19) or criminals condemned to Proc. p. 64, &c.) Several modern writers, such as
death (Dion Cass. lx. 33), who fought as in gladia- B6ckh, Baumstark, and others, have therefore
torial combats, until one party was killed, unless been led to suppose that all the grammarians who
preserved by the clemency of the emperor. The call the nautodicae &pXat are mistaken, and that
ships engaged in the sea-fights were divided into the nautodicae were not eieayw/ers in the cases
two parties, called respectively by the names of above mentioned, but au1carrae'. But this mode of
different maritime nations, as Tyrians and Egyp- settling the question does not appear to us to be as
tians (Suet. Jul. 31), Rhodians and Sicilians (Suet. satisfactory as that adopted by Meier and SchisClaud. 21; Dion Cass. lx. 33), Persians and Athe- mann. (Alt. Pr'U. p. 85, &c.) In all the speeches
nians (Dion Cass. lxi. 9), Corcyraeans and Corin- of Demosthenes no trace occurs of the nautodicae,
thians, Athenians and Syracusans, &c. (Id. lxvi. and in the oration against Lacritus (p. 940), where
25.) These sea-fights were exhibited with the all the authorities are mentioned before whom such
same magnificence and lavish expenditure of human a case as that of Lacritus might be brought, the
life as characterised the gladiatorial combats and orator could scarcely have failed to mention the
other public games of the Romans. In Nero's nautodicae, if they had still existed at the time.
naumachia there were sea-monsters swimming It is therefore natural to suppose that the iefarL
about in the artificial lake (Suet. Nero, 12; Dion e',u-c7rpwv at the time of Philip of Macedonia, when
Cass. lxi. 9), and Claudius had a silver Triton they became alicaL k/x1,oL [ERIVIENi DIKAI],
placed in the middle of the lake Fucinus, who was were taken from the nautodicae and transferred to
made by machinery to give the signal for attack the thesmothetae. And as the republic could not
with a trumpet. (Suet. Claud. 21.) Troops of now think it any longer necessary to continue the
Nereids were also represented swimming about. office of nautodicae, merely on account of the aBeas
(Martial, de Spect. 26.) In the sea-fight exhibited eviasr, these latter were likewise transferred to the
by Titus there were 3000 men engaged (Dion Cass. thesmothetae, and the office of the nautodicae was
lxvi. 25), and in that exhibited by Domitian the abolished. The whole period during which nautoships were almost equal in number to two real dicae existed at Athens would thus comprehend
fleets (paenejuastae classes, Suet. Does. 4). In the the time from the legislation of Cleisthenes or soon
battle on the lake Fucinus there were 19,000 com- after, to Philip of Macedonia. One difficulty howbatants (Tacit. Ann. xii. 56), and fifty ships on ever yet remains, for nautodicae are mentioned by
each side. (Dion Cass. lx. 33.) Lucian (ii. p. 203, ed. Bip.) in a dialogue which
NAUTA. [ExERCITORIA ACTIO.] the author represents as having taken place after
NAU'TICON (YaVuwTls). [FENUS, p. 525, b.] the death of Alexander. Those who are unwilling
NAUTO'DICAE (YaVTnluca,), are called apXaL to believe that Lucian here, as in other places, has
or magistrates by most of the ancient grammarians been guilty of an anachronism, must suppose that
(Ilarpocrat. Suidas, Lex. Rhet. s. v. Naurose8Ka,), the nautodicae were after their abolition restored
while a few others call them atcao'rai. (Hesych. for a time, of which however there is no other evis. v.) The concurrent authority of most of them, dence. (Compare Beckh, Publ. Econ. i. ~ 9;13Baumtogether with a passage of Lysias (de Pecun. Publ. stark, De Curatoribzus Esmporii et Nautodicis crpid
p. 189, Bremi), the only Attic orator who mentions Athenienses, pp. 65-78.) [L. S.]
the nautodicae, renders it more than probable that NEBRIS, a fawn's skin (from sycgps, a fawn
they were a magistracy. This can be the less see AEGIS), worn originally by hunters and others
doubtful as the words 8aKd'Sei, and mceaoTIrs are as an appropriate part of their dress, and aftersometimes used of magistrates in their capacity of wards attributed to Dionysus (Eurip. Baclch. 99,
elaywcoyers. (Meier, Att. Proc. p. 28; see EISA- 125, 157, 790, ed. Matt.; Aristoph. Ranae, 1209;
GOGEIS.) All testimonies of the ancients moreover Dionys. Perieg. 702, 946; Rufus Festus Avien.
agree that the nautodicae had the jurisdiction in 1129), and consequently assumed by his votaries
matters belonging to navigation and commerce, and in the processions and ceremonies which they obin matters concerning such persons as had entered served in honour of him. [DIONYSIA.] The antheir names as members of a phratria without both nexed woodcut, taken from Sir Wim. Hamilton's
their parents being citizens of Athens, or in other Vases (i. 37), shows a priestess of Bacchus in the
words, in the 8bicai eurlpowv and ibxaL eias.r. The attitude of offering a nebris to him or to one of
time when nautodicae were first instituted is not his ministers. The works of ancient art often
mentioned, but the fact that they had the jurisdic- show it as worn not only by male and fernale baction in cases where a person had assumed the chanals, but also by Pans and Satyrs. It was