i. Ships (De navibus) 1. In turn, I have applied myself to the terms for specific skills by which something is made, terms for the tools of the artisans or whatever proves useful to them, and anything else of this sort worth pointing out. 2. The general term ‘craftsman’ (artifex) is so given because he practices (facere) an art (ars, gen. artis), just as a goldsmith (aurifex) is someone who works (facere) gold (aurum), for the ancients used to say faxere instead of facere.

3. A ‘ship captain’ (nauclerus) is the master of the ship, and is named thus because the ship is under his assignment, for ‘assignment’ is called κλῆρος in Greek. But the others on the ship have their share as well. 4. The helmsman (gubernio), also known as the gubernator, as if the word were coibernator, because his prudence restrains (coibere, i.e. cohibere) the winters (ibernum, i.e. hibernum), that is, the storms of the sea. 5. The word ‘sailor’ (nauta) is derived from ‘ship’ (navis). Sometimes navita is used poetically for nauta, just as Mavors is used for Mars, but the correct term is nauta. 6. An oarsman (remex) is so named because he wields an oar (remus). The word is remex in the nominative case in the same way as tubex. 7. An epibata is named with a Greek term (i.e. ἐπιβάτης, “one who embarks”); in Latin he is called a ‘passenger’ (superveniens).