The Naucrary (Ancient Greek: ναυκραρία) was a subdivision of the people of Attica, and certainly among the most ancient in the Athenian state.
The word is derived either:
The former is generally accepted in view of the fact that the naucraries were certainly the units on which the Athenian fleet was based.
The view once held (on the strength of a fragment of Aristotle, quoted carelessly by Photius) that the naucrary was invented by Solon may now be regarded as obsolete (see the Aristotelian Constitution, viii. 3). Each of the four Ionian tribes 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 was put down by the "Prytaneis (chief men) of the Naucraries." Although it is generally recognized that in this passage we can trace an attempt to shift the responsibility for the murder of the suppliants from the archon Megacles, it is highly improbable that the Prytaneis of the Naucraries did not play a part in the tragedy.
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