Latin for Learners 2: Topic / Level 4; transport [11]; on water [i]

[1] nāvigium, -ī [2/n]: vessel; ship; boat i.e. a general term for any form of transport on water whether it be a ship with sails or a boat that is rowed. Translations will vary dependent upon context. All of the following are from Cicero’s correspondence with Atticus:

Dē puerīs quid agam? parvōne nāvigiō committam?

What shall I do about the boys? Shall I entrust them to a small boat?

Prōrsus dissolūtum offendī nāvigium vel potius dissipātum.

In fact I found a ship breaking up, or rather already in wreckage

Nāvigia colligēbat

He was collecting vessels

suntque nāvigia praetereā lūculenta

and, besides, there are some excellent ships

In the same way that English distinguishes size (but not function) of a vessel by referring simply either to ship or boat, so too does Latin differentiate:

[2] nāvis, -is [3/f]: the general term for a ship although, dependent upon context, it may translate as ‘boat’ if a smaller vessel is being described:

Nāvis, quae in flūmine magna est, in marī parvula est (Seneca the Younger)

A ship, which is big in a river, is tiny in a sea.

Latin will use adjectives to specify the functions of different types of large craft:

[3] nāvis onerāria: merchant / cargo ship

[4] nāvis longa: [lit: long ship] battle ship (especially with oars)

Here, Caesar refers to both types:

Nāvibus circiter LXXX onerāriīs coāctīs contractīsque, quot satis esse ad duās trānsportandās legiōnēs exīstimābat, quod praetereā nāvium longārum habēbat quaestōrī, lēgātīs praefectīsque distribuit.

After about eighty transport ships had been assembled and brought together, which he considered sufficient for conveying two legions across, he assigned whatever warships he had besides to the quaestor, the legates, and the prefects.

[5] nāvis āctuāria: fast transport ship

Note in this excerpt how the transport ships are adapted for the purpose of a naval battle:

nāvibus āctuāriīs quārum numerus erat satis magnus, magnitūdō nēquāquam satis iūsta ad proeliandum, rōstra imposuit. (Bellum Alexandrinum)

he fitted rams onto fast transport ships, of which there was a sufficiently large number, whose size was by no means adequate for fighting

rōstrum, -ī [2/n]: the protruding ‘beak’ at the prow of a Roman ship designed to inflict damage during a naval conflict

[6] nāvis piscātōria: fishing boat

deinde in piscātōriā quīdam nāve rētibus opertī circumvectīque ita ad castra Rōmāna conlocūtīque cum trānsfugīs

Then, covered with fishing nets in a fishing boat, certain men were carried around in this way to the Roman camp and conferred with the deserters;

[7] nāvicula, -ae [1/f]: small ship; little boat i.e. the diminutive form of nāvis indicated by the suffix -cula

adulēscentulus cum nāviculīs cuiusquemodī generis XXX, inibi paucīs rōstrātīs, profectus ab Uticā in Maurētāniam (Bellum Africum)

the young man set out from Utica to Mauretania with thirty small boats of every kind, including a few beaked ones among them.

rostrātus, -a, -um: fitted with a rōstrum (see [5] above)

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Topic / Level 4; transport [11]; on water [i]