The institution was most important in the
Archaic period, when they seem to have been key magistrates of local administration. Three ancient sources offer explicit definitions of the naucrary. The second-century BC grammarian,
Ammonius of Alexandria states: In the ninth-century AD,
Lexicon of
Photius, the naucrari are defined as According to the
Aristotlean
Constitution of the Athenians (8.3), in the sixth century BC, each of the four
Ionian tribes of Athens was divided into three
trittyes ("thirds"), each of which was subdivided into four naucraries; there were thus 48 naucraries. The earliest mention of the term is in
Herodotus (v. 71), where it is stated that the
Cylonian conspiracy in 632 BC was put down by the "Prytaneis (chief men) of the naucraries." The
Encyclopedia Britannica conjectured that the military forces of Athens were organized on the basis of the naucraries, and that it was the duty of the presidents of these districts to raise the local levies. But it notes that the
Athenaion Politeia does not connect the naucrary with the fleet or the army, observing that "from chapter 8 (of the text) it would appear that its importance was chiefly in connection with finance," and concludes: In the reforms of
Cleisthenes, the naucraries gave place to the
demes as the political unit. In accordance with the new decimal system, their number was increased to fifty. Whether they continued (and if so, how long) to supply one ship and two (or ten) horsemen each is not certainly known. Cheidemus in Photius asserts that they did, and his statement is to a certain extent corroborated by Herodotus (vi. 89) who records that, in the
Aeginetan War before the Persian Invasion, the Athenian fleet numbered only fifty sail. ==See also==