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roman fleet commanders
#1
What was the latin term equal to greek "nauarchos"?
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#2
Quote:What was the latin term equal to greek "nauarchos"?
It's just the same -- navarchus. (Tac., Ann. 15.51 for the navarch Volusius Proculus.)
posted by Duncan B Campbell
https://ninth-legion.blogspot.com/
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#3
Quote:
eugene:2ivkdjex Wrote:What was the latin term equal to greek "nauarchos"?
It's just the same -- navarchus. (Tac., Ann. 15.51 for the navarch Volusius Proculus.)

Now that is an interesting question! And a very interesting quote indeed from Tacitus. It certainly answers the question for the imperial period. I don't know enough about the Imperial Navy, especially not in this period, to be able to comment further. It's interesting, however, that the word is being used of a man who was presumably of equestrian rank, but who wasn't a very senior officer.

I'd be very interested, however, if anyone knows anything about the use of the term in the Republican period. The translation of Latin military language into Greek (and vice versa) hasn't received nearly enough attention, at least at the higher levels of command.

In the period 91-31BC, the phase appears of individuals without (it seems) much precision being used, but is used of men of higher status than Volusius Proculus. Bear in mind that same is true of the term "praefectus classis", which is rarely used in literary texts of commanders in the Republic/civil wars/Triumviral era, and was sometimes given to individuals of VERY high status (Sex. Pompeius, for instance, is praefectus classis et orae maritimae ex s(enatus) c(onsulto)). In other words (a) in the examples that follow it is unlikely that "????????" is directly translating a Roman title found in a Latin source, and (b) note that it is very difficult to apply parallels between the status of naval commanders in the late Republic, the civil wars and Triumviral period, and the Principate, even when they have identical Latin titles.

(?L. Marcius) Censorinus is described in Memnon 53 (FGrH 3B.364f.) as "???????? ???????", and he was responsible for a squadron which brought grain from the Bosporan Kingdom to the Roman camp at Sinope in 70BC. He may have been a naval prefect, but was probably a legate.

[?Flaminius] Flamma, in 49BC, is described as "? ????????" by Appian (BC 2.46), but it is hard to work out what his rank was. He was probably in charge of Curio's fleet, or a part of it, but fled after Utica - the quaestor, Marcius Rufus, had to give orders directly to the ship captains (Caesar, B.C. 2.43), which suggests that there was no-one apart from Flamma to take command.

C. Caluisius Sabinus, in 38BC, is described as a nauarchos in Appian, B.C. 5.80-81: he was the superior officer of Pompeius Menodorus after Menodorus' defection to Octavian, and Menodorus was a naval commander of high military position (if of ambiguous social status).

I'd add that this is by no-means an exhaustive list, if three people can be said to form a list (I only have data on people who might have been junior officers, so if the term was used to describe legates, it wouldn't be here).

Given the general vagueness of the Latin sources of the time, I'd be inclined to say that there was no Latin equivalent to the term in the Republic. I'm not sure that there's an obvious Latin word that does the job in any case (on a related issue, what's the Latin, in this period, for "military officer"?, or the equivalent of "hegemon"?).

If you're looking for an answer from the Republic, it might be interesting to investigate examples of Latin authors describing men in charge of Greek forces known to have held the rank of navarch?

I'd be very interested to hear anyone's thoughts.

best wishes, and blue skies

Tom
Tom Wrobel
email = [email protected]
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