Note 231 — Chapter XII · EGYPT.

The ναύκληροι τοῦ πορευτικοῦ Ἀλεξανδρεινοῦ στόλου, who set up the stone doubtless belonging to Portus, C. I. Gr. 5889, were the captains of these grain-ships. From the Serapeum of Ostia we possess a series of inscriptions (C. I. L. xiv. 47), according to which it was in all parts a copy of that at Alexandria; the president is at the same time ἐπιμελητὴς παντὸς τοῦ Ἀλεξανδρείνου στόλου (C. I. Gr. 5973). Probably these transports were employed mainly with the carriage of grain, and this consequently took place by succession, to which also the precautions adopted by the emperor Gaius in the straits of Reggio (Josephus, Arch. xix. 2, 5) point. With this well comports the fact, that the first appearance of the Alexandrian fleet in the spring was a festival for Puteoli (Seneca, Ep. 77, 1).