Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)

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Naucraria

（ναυκραρία). An early administrative division at Athens, dating from prehistoric times, for taxation for military purposes. They were forty-eight in number, twelve from each of the old phylae. Each of them was obliged to furnish two horsemen and a ship towards the army and navy. The naucrari, who were at their head, seem to have formed a college or corporate body, who occupied themselves especially with all military and financial affairs, while current business was managed by the πρυτανεῖς, whose office was the Prytaneum. Clisthenes raised their number to fifty, five from each of the ten new phylae, and probably restricted in functions to the services of the State, and especially the fleet. It is likely that they were given up after the fleet had been increased by Themistocles, and that their place was probably taken by the trierarchies. See Liturgia.