[3] Biremes are sometimes called by the Greeks δίκροτα. The name
biremis is also applied to a little boat managed by only two oars.
NAUMĂCHIA, the name given to the representation of a sea-fight
among the Romans, and also to the place where such engagements
were exhibited. These fights sometimes took place in the circus or
amphitheatre, sufficient water being introduced to float ships, but
more generally in buildings especially devoted to this purpose.
The combatants in these sea-fights, called _Naumachiarii_, were
usually captives, or criminals condemned to death, who fought as in
gladiatorial combats, until one party was killed, unless preserved
by the clemency of the emperor. The ships engaged in the sea fights
were divided into two parties, called respectively by the names of
different maritime nations, as Tyrians and Egyptians, Rhodians and
Sicilians, Persians and Athenians, Corcyraeans and Corinthians,
Athenians and Syracusans, &c. These sea-fights were exhibited with
the same magnificence and lavish expenditure of human life as
characterised the gladiatorial combats and other public games of the
Romans. In Nero’s naumachia there were sea-monsters swimming about in
the artificial lake. In the sea-fight exhibited by Titus there were
3000 men engaged, and in that exhibited by Domitian the ships were
almost equal in number to two real fleets.
NAUTŎDĬCAE (ναυτόδικαι), magistrates at Athens, who had jurisdiction
in matters belonging to navigation and commerce, and in matters
concerning such persons as had entered their names as members of
a phratria without both their parents being citizens of Athens,
or in other words, in the δίκαι ἐμπόρων and δίκαι ξενίας. The time
when nautodicae were first instituted is not mentioned, but it must
have been previous to Pericles, and perhaps as early as the time of
Cleisthenes. The nautodicae were appointed every year by lot in the
month of Gamelion, and probably attended to the δίκαι ἐμπόρων only
during the winter, when navigation ceased, whereas the δίκαι ξενίας
might be brought before them all the year round.