[History] How was order kept in Hellenistic societies?

[MButcher]

I wrote a paper that may help with this. It was about how the Ptolemy's were able to maintain control over their Egyptian subjects, and the system of courts had a section in there. In Ptolemaic Egypt at least, there was a court system in place.

One case in particular was mentioned about a dispute over the ownership of a house in Thebes. I'll see if I can upload the paper to rapidshare. If you have access to Jstore I'm sure it has a wealth of articles on the subject.

Also, Bagnall and Derow's Historical Sources in translation - the Hellenistic Period is a great source for this. Many of the papyri that have been recovered have been about some poor schmuck writing to a government official asking for justice. You can probably look through it online through google books or Amazon.

Here it is: http://rapidshare.com/files/44583354...Convention.doc

The relevant section starts on page ten.