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Launching into History: Aquatic Displays in the Early Empire*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

K. M. Coleman
K. M. Coleman
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town / Trinity College, Dublin
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Extract

Dio devotes almost an entire chapter to the aquatic displays forming part of Titus' one hundred days of spectacles to celebrate the inauguration in A.D. 80 of the Flavian Amphitheatre (which he calls θέατϱον [ϰυνηγετιϰόν]). He is not without limitations as an historian; but when his testimony contains details which are difficult to explain, it is not to be dismissed out of hand.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 83 , November 1993 , pp. 48 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © K. M. Coleman 1993. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The normal Greek locution for an amphitheatre: see E. Rawson, Discrimina ordinum: The Lex Julia Theatralis', PBSR 55 (1987), 83–114, at 87n. 18.

2 Rich, J. W., Cassius Dio. The Augustan Settlement (Roman History 53–55.9) (1990), 4–12Google Scholar, and ‘Dio on Augustus’, in Cameron, Averil (ed.), History as Text. The Writing of Ancient History (1989), 86–110Google Scholar.

3 The debate dates back nearly two centuries to the excavations in the Flavian Amphitheatre under the French: the papal antiquarian Carlo Fea, claiming that the arena floor was located at ground level, was opposed by the architect Pietro Bianchi and the professor of archaeology at Rome University, Lorenzo Re, who argued that the floor was raised on the recently excavated substructural walls. See Ridley, R. T., The Eagle and the Spade. Archaeology in Rome during the Napoleonic Era (1992), 217–37Google Scholar. The views of Bianchi and Re are now universally accepted, but Fea's chief item of evidence has not been explained away: the literary sources attesting naumachiae in the Flavian Amphitheatre.

4 On Claudius' ‘systematic exploitation’ of his invasion of Britain see Levick, B., Claudius (1990), 148Google Scholar.

5 The manuscript reading in morem cochleae is defended by Liberati (Silverio), who argues that because the excavation had to be deep enough to facilitate a water-supply from the Tiber, the tiers of seats rose in a spiral shape (1986, 266; 1987, 62). But rows of seats in an auditorium are parallel to one another; if they were arranged in a spiral and the spectators were not to slide off, each seat would have to be on its own step, which would be a waste of space and money.

6 See Le Gall, J., Le Tibre, fleuve de Rome dans l'antiquité (1953), 116Google Scholar.

7 F. Coarelli, ‘Il Campo Marzio occidentale’, MEFRA 89 (1977), 807–46; plan at fig. 1.

8 Roddaz, J. -M., Marcus Agrippa (1984), 254–5 (fig.). 284CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Coarelli, op. cit. (n. 7), 828.

10 The stagnum was previously estimated to have been much smaller, since it was thought to have excluded the area occupied by the Porticus Boni Euentus (now known to have been constructed later): see Shipley, F. W., Agrippa's Building Activities in Rome (1933), 53–4Google Scholar, whose underestimation of its size caused him to suppose that Tigellinus' banquet was held not on the stagnum but in Agrippa's artificial harbour beside Lake Avernus.

11 For a detailed discussion of Tacitus' presentation of this episode, see Woodman, T., ‘Nero's alien capital: Tacitus as paradoxographer (Annals 15.36–7)’, in Woodman, T. and Powell, J. (eds), Author and Audience in Latin Literature (1992), 173–88 and 251–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Golvin-Reddé 1990, 168, take this passage to mean that the Aqua Alsietina was normally used for irrigation purposes, and diverted to fill the Stagnum Augusti as and when required.

13 An assumption adopted to prove the ‘vast depths of inhumanity which … organisers … and spectators could plumb’ (Brothers, A. J., ‘Buildings for entertainment’, in Barton, I. M. (ed.), Roman Public Buildings (1989), 97–125, at 119–20)Google Scholar.

14 A. W. van Buren and G. P. Stevens, ‘The Aqua Alsietina on the Janiculum’, MAAR 6 (1927), 137–46.

15 Grimal, P., Les jardins romains3 (1984), 118–19 and n. 6Google Scholar.

16 Originally advanced by Bigot, P., Rome antique au IVe siècle ap. J. -C. (1942), 62. See Coarelli 1992, 46–51Google Scholar.

17 Coarelli 1992, 43–6.

18 Coarelli 1992, 53.

19 Cic., Phil. II. 109, Plut., Brut. 20, Suet., Jul. 83, App., BC II. 143, Dio XLIV. 35; for the identification see Grimal, op. cit. (n. 15), 118.

20 Platner, S. B. and Ashby, T., A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (1929), s. v. Circus Gai et Neronis (pp. 113–14), Horti Agrippinae (pp. 264–5)Google Scholar.

21 Grimal, op. cit. (n. 15), 120 and n. 6.

22 For diagrams contrasting the blind spots in an oblong auditorium with the superior visibility afforded by an ellipse see Golvin 1988, pl. LV (= Golvin-Landes 1990, 44). Agrippa's stagnum, which was not designed for spectator events, may have been rectangular: see Coarelli, op. cit. (n. 7), fig. 1.

23 If the lake were oblong, the surface area would be 19.2 ha; Rea (1988, 36–7) misplaces the decimal point to arrive at an incredible 192 ha.

24 Lugli, G., Roma antica. Il centra monumentale (1946), 335Google Scholar.

25 In 1888 a trench II m deep was uncovered in the Via Morosini east of S. Cosimato (see R. Lanciani, Forma Urbis Romae, pl. 32); allowing that the ground-level has risen 7 m, this trench would have been 4 m deep in the time of Augustus. If the trench is to be associated with Augustus' stagnum (and if that structure was rectangular, as argued by Coarelli 1992, 48), the total volume of water in the basin would have been more than twice my conservative estimate.

26 The island is centred for clarity, but probably lay closer to the bank: see further below.

27 Ashby, T., The Aqueducts of Ancient Rome (1935), 183 n. 4Google Scholar.

28 Coarelli 1992, 49. Or it may have been a drawbridge across the canal to facilitate traffic along the bank of the Tiber (Liberati 1986, 267).

29 Coarelli 1992, 49.

30 For circumstruo of a retaining wall, cf. Plin., NH XIX. 163, ‘ripis … undique circumstructis lapide’, Cels., Dig. XIX. I. 38. 2, ‘aquam duceret in aenum lateribus circumstructum’. In our context the wall may have been stepped so as to provide seating for spectators (as G. W. Mooney takes it in his translation).

31 Rea 1988, 37.

32 The claim is ubiquitous: cf. Manodori, A., Anfiteatri, circhi e stadi di Roma (1982), 205Google Scholar (of a copy by Panvinio); Golvin-Landes 1990, 65.

33 BMCRE I, pl. 41.7, 48.2, RIC I (rev.), 157 no. 19, pl. 20 no. 182, Meiggs, R., Roman Ostia2 (1973)Google Scholar, pl. XVIIIa. I am grateful to A. Wallace-Hadrill for this identification.

34 Golvin-Landes 1990, 81.

35 Museo della Civiltà Romana. Catalogo (1964), 310–11 (= ch. 18 no. 49), Coarelli, F. and La Regina, A., Abruzzo, Molise (1984), 58Google Scholar.

36 Leach, E. Winsor, The Rhetoric of Space. Literary and Artistic Representations of Landscape in Republican and Augustan Rome (1988), 269Google Scholar.

37 Martin, J., Musées et collections archéologiques de l'Algérie et de la Tunisie. Musée Lavigerie de Saint Louis de Carthage Supplément II (1915), 26 and pl. VI. 5Google Scholar; Deneauve, J., Lampes de Carthage (1969), n. 1049, pl. XCV; Liberati 1986, 267, fig. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Neither of the older identifications is very plausible either (Martin, ibid.): the Antonine Baths at Carthage seem too localized for an illustration on what may have been an imported object, and the Villa Publica at Rome was too far from the Tiber to be the building depicted in this case.

39 cf. Coarelli's suggestion (1992, 47) that Augustus intended the spectators at his stagnum to sit on the slopes of the Janiculum.

40 For a list of comparable discrepancies between Tacitus and Suetonius, see Questa, C., Studi sulle fonti degli Annales di Tacito 2 (1967), 100 n. 24, 229 n. 4Google Scholar.

41 As suggested by Toynbee, J. M. C., Animals in Roman Life and Art (1973), 219Google Scholar.

42 For the post-Neronian dating of Calpurnius Siculus on metrical and stylistic grounds, see D. Armstrong, Philol. 130 (1986), 113–37 and E. Courtney, REL 65 (1987), 148–57.

43 Jobst, W., Provinzhauptstadt Carnuntum (1983), 101Google Scholar (fig.), 102, pl. 87 (aerial view); Obermayer, A., Römerstadt Carnuntum (1967), 60 (fig.), 63Google Scholar.

44 See Golvin 1988, 335; Golvin-Landes 1990, 94–7, 99–103; Golvin-Reddé 1990, 169; K. Welch, ‘Roman amphitheatres revived’, JRA 4 (1991), 277–9.

45 For photographs, see Keay, S. J., Raman Spain (1988), 87Google Scholar; Golvin-Landes 1990, 95, 97.

46 My measurements are approximate because I have calculated them from the scale diagram at Golvin 1988, pl. XXX (= Golvin–Landes 1990, 94). Golvin's various discussions supply a total of four sets of measurements (in metres) for the length and width, all different: 5 by 7.1 (Golvin 1988, 335), 18.35 by 3·7 (Golvin-Landes 1990, 96), 50 by 10 (Golvin-Reddé 1990, 168), 50 by 7.5 (Golvin–Reddé 1990, 169).

47 See diagram at Golvin 1988, pl. XXXIII.

48 Measurements from Franzoni, L., Verona. Testimonianze archeologiche (1965), 78Google Scholar; I treat them as approximate because they are slightly at variance with the length and width calculated by Golvin, 36.13 by 8.77 m (1988, 335).

49 The ‘mime’ theory is suggested by Rea 1988, 37, on the strength of Dio's notice of a display mounted by Septimius Severus in which 400 animals were released from a ‘shipwrecked’ craft (LXXVI. 1.4); this probably took place in the circus: see Humphrey, J. H., Roman Circuses. Arenas for Chariot Racing (1986), 115–16Google Scholar.

50 Suspect ‘evidence’ for the full-scale flooding of the arena should be ignored, e.g. Fea, 's claim , Osservazioni sull'arena e sul podio dell'anfiteatro flavio I (1813), 36Google Scholar, that traces of blue paint were still partially visible on the podium-wall (after nearly eighteen centuries of wear and tear, including fire); drawing an analogy with Vegetius' advice about marine camouflage (Mil. IV. 37), he inferred that the colour was intended to be reflected by the water in the arena. For the heated polemic and special pleading in which Fea was engaged see n. 3.

51 Panella, C., ‘La valle del Colosseo nell'antichità’, Bollettino di Archeologia 1–2 (1990), 34–88Google Scholar, at 68.

52 Golvin 1988, 176–7.

53 See, e.g., Golvin 1988, 335.

54 Dimensions from Ghini, G., ‘Prime indagini archeologiche’, in Anfiteatro flavio. Immagine testimonianze spettacoli (1988), 101–5, at 101Google Scholar.

55 C. Mocchegiani Carpano and R. Luciani, ‘I restauri dell'Anfiteatro Flavio’, Riv. Ist. Naz. Arch.3 4 (1981), 9–69, at 27 (‘per allagare gli ipogei e il successivo scarico rapido’); Luciani, R., The Colosseum (1990), 18Google Scholar.

56 Ghini, op. cit. (n. 54), 101.

57 Mocchegiani Carpano and Luciani, op. cit. (n. 55), 36, argue that the foundations of the corridor walls in the hypogeum were independent of the amphitheatre's main foundation, and so they assume that the hypogeum was originally an empty shell and that it contained no permanent structures before the reign of Domitian. But the same evidence can be adduced to support the theory that the only structure below the original amphitheatre was a basin along the main axes.

58 Failure to accommodate this possibility forces Rea (1988, 35) to locate in the Stagnum Augusti all the aquatic events recorded by Martial. As evidence that Titus completed the installations in the hypogeum she adduces Sped. 2. 2, ‘et crescunt media pegmata celsa uia’ (‘lofty scaffolding rises in the middle of the road’); but this clearly refers to a structure above ground-level, probably an arch in the process of construction over the Via Sacra.

59 First suggested by L. Friedländer in his edition (1886), i. 138.

60 See Carratello, U. (ed.), M. Valerii Martialis Epigrammaton Liber (1981), 20–30Google Scholar.

61 e.g. nos 27–30 occur in the order 27, 29, 30, 28 in one branch of the tradition (H), and in another (K) 27 and 29 are omitted. Ville, G., La Gladiature en occident des origines à la mort de Domitien (1981), 148CrossRefGoogle Scholar adopts the order in H to achieve the sequence uenatio-munusuenatio-naumachia, from which he argues, in defiance of the testimony of Dio, that the events on the deck over the Stagnum Augusti lasted longer than one day. But since the manuscripts of Spect. are so far from unanimous in recording the order of the poems, the grounds for refuting the evidence of Dio are inadequate.

62 Associated with Ares, and identified by the Romans as Bellona: see LIMC iii. I. 746–7 s. v. Enyo (Ruth Michael Gais), iii. 2 pl. 562.

63 Conflation of the two battles mentioned in this passage has led to some sensational claims for Roman ingenuity: for an example from scholarly literature, see Hannestad, N., Roman Art and Imperial Policy (1988), 123Google Scholar (locating in the Flavian Amphitheatre a naval battle involving three thousand combatants).

64 From dimensions calculated by Morrison, J. S. and Coates, J. F., The Athenian Trireme. The History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship (1986), 199 fig. 57Google Scholar.

65 The naval battle re-enacted every summer at Peasholm Park in Scarborough, United Kingdom, involves nine miniature craft, seven of which are exact replicas of historical British vessels. They have an average length of 8 m, each vessel accommodating one person in a sitting or supine position. Electricity and modern technology facilitate their manoeuvres.

66 e.g. Friedländer in his commentary (i. 136–7) ascribed it to a second edition of the Liber Spectaculorum under Domitian; K. Prinz, ‘Martialerklärungen I’, WS 45 (1926–1927), 88–101, at 94–8, suggested that it was either plagiarism based on 14. 181 or else a youthful work Martial that was cited as a parallel by a scholiast and was subsequently incorporated into the tradition.

67 Suggested by Herrmann, L., ‘Le “livre des spectacles” de Martial’, Latomus 21 (1962), 494–504Google Scholar, at 500.

68 See Lausberg, M., Das Einzeldistichon (1982), 372Google Scholar, although she does not comment on the implications this principle carries for the ordering of 25 and 25b.

69 Prinz, op. cit. (n. 66), 94 n. 1, argued for the stagnum on the basis that two lengths (2 by 532 m = 1,064 m) would nearly approximate to the actual distance between Sestos and Abydos (7 stades = 1,300 m).

70 Two sources attest nocturnal displays under Domitian, both probably referring to the Flavian Amphitheatre (Stat., Silu. 1. 6. 85–95, Suet., Dom. 4. 1). Nocturnal displays are also attested at Rome under Caligula (Suet., Cal. 18. 2, 54. 2), and at Pompeii (CIL X. 854 = ILS 5653) and Lanuvium (CIL XIV. 2121 =ILS 5683): see Friedländer, L., Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms 9 ii (1920), 16Google Scholar.

71 For betting at munera and other contests, cf. Ov., Ars I. 168 (with Hollis' note), CIL IV. 2508, Balsdon, J. P. V. D., Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome (1969), 321Google Scholar, Hopkins, K., Death and Renewal. Sociological Studies in Roman History 2 (1983), 26Google Scholar.

72 Coleman 1990, 61–2.

73 Traversari 1960, 125 fig. 32, Dunbabin, K. M. D., The Mosaics of Roman North Africa (1978), pl. IX, fig. 18Google Scholar.

74 Traversari 1960, 124–7.

75 Dunbabin, op. cit. (n. 73), 91.

76 Dunbabin, op. cit. (n. 73), 106.

77 For a study of the iconography of Hero and Leander, and the theory that surviving representations may have been influenced by book-illustrations, see Kemp-Lindermann, D., ‘Hero und Leander’, in Höckmann, U. and Krug, A. (eds), Festschrift für Frank Brommer (1977), 201–5 and pl. 56Google Scholar.

78 The ubiquity of water-proofing alterations to theatres in the late Empire, especially in the East, attests the popularity of the type of display to which John Chrysostom objected; drawing on Martial's poem as the earliest example of an aquatic pantomime, the term tetimimi (from Spect. 26. 8) has been coined for these displays. See Traversari 1960, 50 n. 2.

79 Normally at this period women wore a modesty garment for mixed bathing: Mart. 3. 87, Mehl, E., Antike Schuwimmkunst (1927), 87Google Scholar. But nudity was allowed in mimes on certain occasions, e.g. the Floralia: see RE vi. 2751, s. v. Floralia (Wissowa); virtual nudity was one of the attractions of pantomime: cf. Apuleius' description of the woman playing Venus in the ‘Judgement of Paris’ (Met. X. 31. 1): ‘nudo et intecto corpore perfectam formositatem professa, nisi quod tenui pallio bombycino inumbrabat spectabilem pubem’ ('Her body was naked and unadorned, thereby displaying her perfect figure, except that the view of her private parts was obscured by a swathe of flimsy silk’). The similarity between Titus' ‘Nereids’ and this type of pantomime is observed by Welch, op. cit. (n. 44), 279.

80 On the relation between water and nakedness, see Griffin, J., Latin Poets and Roman Life (1985), 88–111Google Scholar.

81 Translation by Griffin, op. cit. (n. 80), 93.

82 Attempted by Pace, B., ‘Theatralia’, in Anthemon. Scritti di archeologia e di antichità classiche in onore di Carlo Anti (1955), 309–17, at 312–17Google Scholar.

83 See Carandini, A., Ricci, A., and de Vos, M., Filosofiana. La Villa di Piazza Armerina (1982), 154Google Scholar.

84 For brief but pertinent remarks on the theme of Titus' divinity in Spect. see Sullivan, J. P., Martial: the Unexpected Classic (1991), 9–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 Overlooked by Traversari (1960, 113–15), who locates these events in the Flavian Amphitheatre.

86 Furneaux comments ‘the number … is suggestive of iniquitous condemnations’. Cf. (of Caesar) Dio XLIII. 23. 4, , (of Claudius) Tac., Ann. XII. 56. 5, ‘pugnatum quamquam inter sontis fortium uirorum animo’, Dio LX. 33. 3. .

87 The participants in a naumachia staged by Nero were barbari (Sen., Epist. LXX. 26).

88 Casson, L., Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (1971), 141Google Scholar.

89 Golvin 1988, 61 assumes that the occasion was the dedication of the wooden amphitheatre (see II c above).

90 RE xvi. 1970–4 s. v. Naumachie (Bernert).

91 Ferrill, A., Caligula Emperor of Rome (1991), 116Google Scholar.

92 Barrett, A. A., Caligula. The Corruption of Power (1989), 211–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

93 Well formulated by Isserlin, B. S. J., ‘The canal of Xerxes: facts and problems’, Annual of the British School at Athens 86 (1991), 83–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 86: ‘overawing the people in invaded regions by works of incredible scope and efficiency would have served as a useful tool of psychological warfare and imperial propaganda’.

94 For a reconstruction of the circumstances, see Dunbabin, T. J., The Western Greeks (1948), 328–9Google Scholar.

95 See Plepelits, K. (ed.), Chariton von Aphrodisias. Kallirhoe (1976), 10–17Google Scholar.

96 On the ‘historiographical pose’ in the ancient novel, and the blurring of the distinction between fact and fiction, see Morgan, J. R., ‘History, romance, and realism in the Aithiopika of Heliodorus’, Classical Antiquity I (1982), 221–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

97 Coleman 1990, 69.

98 Horsfall, N., ‘“The uses of literacy” and the Cena Trimalchionis’, G&R2 36 (1989), 74–89, 194–209Google Scholar, at 81.

99 On summaries of historical works for general consumption see Momigliano, A., ‘The historians of the classical world and their audiences: some suggestions’, in Sesto contribute alia storia degli studi classici e del mondo antico I (1980), 361–76Google Scholar, at 369.

100 See Bonner, S. F., Education in Ancient Rome (1977), 278Google Scholar.

101 Even if we inflate the pessimistic estimate of Harris, W. V., Ancient Literacy (1989)Google Scholar. See now the responses in Humphrey, J. H. (ed.), Literacy in the Roman World (1991)Google Scholar.

102 ‘Syracusae auf dem Palatin; Syracuse, New York. Sentimentale Namengebung in Rom und später’, in Görier, W. and Koster, S. (eds), Pratum Saraviense. Festschrift für Peter Steinmetz (1990), 169–88Google Scholar.

103 Görler, op. cit. (n. 102), 169.

104 Görler, op. cit. (n. 102), 170.

105 Evidence collected by B. Lifshitz, ‘Études sur l'histoire de la province romaine de Syrie’, ANRW II 8 (1977), 11–12.

106 By de Saulcy, F., Numismatique de la Terre Sainte (1874), 299 no. 2Google Scholar.

107 Jos., BJ III. 414–31, Smallwood, E. M., The Jews under Roman Rule (1976), 309Google Scholar.

108 Meshorer, J., ‘Coins of the city of Gadara struck in commemoration of a local naumachia’, Bulletin of the Maritime Museum [Haïfa] I (1966), 28–31Google Scholar.

109 RE xiv. 610–13 s. v. Maïumas (Preisendanz-Jacoby), Roueché, C., Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity (1989), 73Google Scholar. The name attests aquatic connections (cf.mai = ‘water’, maiouma = ‘port’). The festival was probably religious in origin and perhaps included nocturnal celebrations and ritual feasting. Libanius associates it with licentiousness (Ad Timocr. 16). The superficial resemblance of Titus’ aquatic pantomimes (‘Leander’, ’Nereids’) is probably mere coincidence.

110 Harmless, too, are the naval battles which Claudian hopes will form part of the celebrations in the amphitheatre on the occasion of Flavius Manlius Theodorus' assumption of the consulship in A.D. 399 (Carm. 17, 331–2): ‘lasciui subito confligant aequore lembi / stagnaque remigibus spument inmissa canoris' (‘Let ships meet in mock conflict on a hastily improvised ocean and let the water channelled in for the occasion be churned up by the singing oarsmen’).

111 For a recent overview, see Künzl, E., Der römische Triumph (1988), 85–108Google Scholar.

112 Le Glay, M., ‘Les amphithéâtres: loci religiosi?’, in Domergue, C., Landes, C., and Pailler, J.-M. (eds), Spectacula-I. Gladiateurs et amphithéâtres (1990), 217–29Google Scholar.

113 R. Syme, ‘The crisis of 2 B.C.’, SBAW 1974, 3–34, at (1987), 15 = Roman Papers III (1984), 912–36Google Scholar, at 922; Bowersock, G., ‘Augustus and the east: the problem of the succession’, in Millar, F. and Segal, E. (eds), Caesar Augustus. Seven Aspects (1984), 169–88, at 174Google Scholar; Nicolet, C., L'Inventaire du monde. Géographie et politique aux origines de l'empire romain (1988), 64; Coarelli 1992, 54Google Scholar.

114 Zanker, P., Augustus und die Macht der Bilder (1987), 89Google Scholar.

115 Coleman 1990, 71.

116 D. W. Griffith, director of The Birth of a Nation, a film about early American history produced in 1914; quoted by P. Sorlin, The Film in History (1980), IX. The comparison between this attitude and the canons of ancient historiography was originally made by Woodman, A. J., Rhetoric in Ancient Historiography (1988), 207–8Google Scholar.

117 On the credulity of the educated public, see Scobie, A., More Essays on the Ancient Romance and its Heritage (1973), 37Google Scholar. For the related phenomenon of a belief in ghosts (generated partly by a combination of superstitious beliefs and misleading sense-impressions), see J. Winkler, ‘Lollianos and the desperadoes’, JHS 100 (1980), 155–81, at 160–5.

118 Colemani 1990, 68.

119 Norden, E., Ennius und Vergilius. Kriegsbilder aus Roms grosser Zeit (1915), 166Google Scholar.

120 For the theory of a practice-battle, see Gardner, P., ‘Boat-races among the Greeks’, JHS 2 (1881), 90–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who argues that Servius mistook the battle for a race. He accounts for the Greek term naumachia by postulating that practice-routines for a naval battle may have been Greek in origin, if Livy (XXXV. 26) is correct in ascribing them also to Nabis, tyrant of Sparta.