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The '''Naucrary''' and '''Naucraria''' ({{langx|grc|ναυκραρία|naukraria}}) was a subdivision of the people of [[Attica]],<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Naucrary |volume=19|last1= Mitchell |first1= John Malcolm |author1-link= |page=276 |inline=1|short=1}}</ref> among the most ancient in the [[Classical Athens|Athenian]] state. Each was led by an official called a naucrarus ({{langx|grc|ναύκραρος|naukraros}}). All sources for the institution date from after it had ceased to be particularly important and thus the nature of the naucraries is highly disputed in modern scholarship. They seem to have played a role in fiscal management and naval organisation.

==Etymology==
The word is derived either from ''naus'' (ναῦς "a ship") and describes the duty imposed upon each naucrary, of providing one ship and two (or, more probably, ten) horsemen; or from ''naio'' (ναίω "I dwell"), in which case it has to do with a householder census. The former is generally accepted since the naucraries were certainly the units on which the Athenian fleet was based.<ref name=EB1911/>

==History==
The institution was most important in the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic period]], when they seem to have been key magistrates of local administration.<ref name="Papazarkadas">{{cite book |last1=Papazarkadas |first1=Nikolaos |title=Sacred and public land in ancient Athens |date=2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199694006 |pages=212–213}}</ref> Three ancient sources offer explicit definitions of the naucrary. The second-century BC grammarian, [[Ammonius of Alexandria]] states:
{{quotation|''naukraroi'': those exacting money from the public landholdings, and ''naukraria'': the regions in which the (public) landholdings are located.|Ammonius of Alexandria<ref name="Papazarkadas"/>}}
In the ninth-century AD, ''Lexicon'' of [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]], the naucrari are defined as 
{{quotation|''naukraroi'': The ancient Athenian term for the modern [[demarch]]s. They rented out public (property)|Photius ''Lexicon''<ref name="Papazarkadas"/>}}

According to the [[Aristotle]]an ''[[Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle)|Constitution of the Athenians]]'' (8.3), in the sixth century BC, each of the four [[Ionians|Ionian]] tribes of Athens was divided into three ''trittyes'' ("thirds"), each of which was subdivided into four naucraries; there were thus 48 naucraries.<ref name=EB1911/>

The earliest mention of the term is in [[Herodotus]] (v. 71), where it is stated that the [[Cylon of Athens|Cylonian conspiracy]] in 632 BC was put down by the "Prytaneis (chief men) of the naucraries."<ref name=EB1911/>

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,"<ref name=EB1911/> and concludes:

{{quotation|The naucrary consisted of a number of villages, and was, therefore, a local unit very much in the power of the naucraros, who was selected by reason of wealth. The naucraros superintended the construction of, and afterwards captained, the ship, and also assessed and administered the taxes in his own area.<ref name=EB1911/>}}

In the reforms of [[Cleisthenes]], the naucraries gave place to the [[deme]]s 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.<ref name=EB1911/>

==See also==
* [[Trierarchy]]

==Sources==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* The Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens. By Gustav Gilbert. Pg [https://books.google.com/books?id=5LwoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA133 133]+
*Photius, who is clearly using the ''[[Constitution of the Athenians (Aristotle)|Ath. Pol.]]'' (he quotes from it the last part of his article ''totidem verbis'')
*[[Georg Friedrich Schomann|Schomann]], ''Antiq.'' (p.&nbsp;326, Eng. trans.)&nbsp;— quoted by [[John Edwin Sandys|JE Sandys]] (''Ath. Pol.'', viii., 13)&nbsp;— refutes Gilbert, ''Greek Constitutional Antiquities'' (Eng. trans., 1895), and in ''Jahrb. Class. Phil.'' cxi. (1875) pp.&nbsp;9 seq.
*[[Abel Hendy Jones Greenidge|AHJ Greenidge]], ''Handbook of Greek Const. Hist.'' p.&nbsp;134
*for derivation of name, G Meyer, ''Curtius Studien'' (vii. 175). where Wecklein is refuted.
{{Greek terms for country subdivisions}}
{{Types of administrative country subdivision}}

[[Category:Government of ancient Athens]]
[[Category:Navy of ancient Athens]]
[[Category:Archaic Athens]]
[[Category:Types of administrative division]]