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

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Hortātor

（κελευστής). On board ship, the officer who gave out the chant (κέλευσμα), which was sung or played to make the rowers keep the stroke,

Hortator. (From the Vatican Vergil.)

and, as it were, encourage them at their work (Ovid, Met. iii. 619; cf. Verg. Aen. v. 177; Serv. ad loc.), whence the name (solet hortator remiges hortarier, Plaut. Merc. iv. 2, 5). He sat on the stern of the vessel, with a truncheon in his hand, which he used to beat the time, as represented in the above illustration.