Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Naumachia
/nɔːˈmeɪkiə/noun
A mock sea battle staged as public spectacle, or the flooded arena built for one.
The Greek roots
ναῦς
naûs
ship
μάχη
mákhē
battle, fight
Literally: “ship battle”
The story of the word
Romans flooded basins and arenas and fought battles in them with condemned prisoners crewing the ships. Claudius put on the largest on the Fucine Lake, where Tacitus says the fleets fought until enough blood had been shed to earn the survivors a pardon. Augustus dug a permanent basin across the Tiber for the purpose. The Greek name is plain description: ship plus fight.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
nauticalastronautnausealogomachy
In a sentence
The emperor's naumachia drained an aqueduct to fill the basin.
Renaissance princes revived the naumachia in palace courtyards, on a rather smaller scale.