All sources for the institution date from after it had ceased to be particularly important and thus the nature of the naucraries is highly disputed in modern scholarship.
The second-century BC grammarian, Ammonius of Alexandria states: naukraroi: those exacting money from the public landholdings, and naukraria: the regions in which the (public) landholdings are located.In the ninth-century AD, Lexicon of Photius, the naucrari are defined as naukraroi: The ancient Athenian term for the modern demarchs.
[1] The earliest mention of the term is in Herodotus (v. 71), where it is stated that the Cylonian conspiracy in 632 BC was put down by the "Prytaneis (chief men) of the naucraries.
"[1] The Encyclopedia Britannica conjectured that the military forces of Athens were organized on the basis of the naucraries, and that it was the duty of the presidents of these districts to raise the local levies.
But it notes that the Athenaion Politeia does not connect the naucrary with the fleet or the army, observing that "from chapter 8 (of the text) it would appear that its importance was chiefly in connection with finance,"[1] and concludes: The naucrary consisted of a number of villages, and was, therefore, a local unit very much in the power of the naucraros, who was selected by reason of wealth.