Naulochus
Ναύλοχα
Naulochus or NAULOCHA (Ναύλοχα, Appian), a place on the N. coast of Sicily, between Mylae and Cape Pelorus. It is known only from the great sea-fight in which Sextus Pompeius was defeated by Agrippa, B.C. 36, and which was fought between Mylae and Naulochus. (Suet. Aug. 16; Appian, App. BC 5.116-122.) [MYLAE] Pompeius himself during the battle had been encamped with his land forces at Naulochus (Appian l.c. 121), and after his victory, Octavian, in his turn, took up his station there, while Agrippa and Lepidus advanced to attack Messana. (Ib. 122.) It is clear from its name that Naulochus was a place where there was a good roadstead or anchorage for shipping; but it is probable that there was no town of the name, though Silius Italicus includes it in his list of Sicilian cities. (Sil. Ital. 14.264.) From the description in Appian it is clear that it was situated between Mylae and Cape Rasoculmo (the Phalacrian Promontory of Ptolemy), and probably not very far from the latter point; but there is nothing to fix its site more definitely.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.