Law and Enforcement in Ptolemaic Egypt
Cambridge University Press, 10/14/2013
EAN 9781107037137, ISBN10: 1107037131
Hardcover, 428 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English
This book examines the activities of a broad array of police officers in Ptolemaic Egypt (323–30 BC) and argues that Ptolemaic police officials enjoyed great autonomy, providing assistance to even the lowest levels of society when crimes were committed. Throughout the nearly 300 years of Ptolemaic rule, victims of crime in all areas of the Egyptian countryside called on local police officials to investigate crimes; hold trials; and arrest, question and sometimes even imprison wrongdoers. Drawing on a large body of textual evidence for the cultural, social and economic interactions between state and citizen, John Bauschatz demonstrates that the police system was efficient, effective, and largely independent of central government controls. No other law enforcement organization exhibiting such a degree of autonomy and flexibility appears in extant evidence from the rest of the Greco-Roman world.
1. Introduction
the place of police
2. The officer corps - police administration and hierarchy
the Phylakitai
3. The officer corps - police administration and hierarchy
civil and military police
4. Agents of appeal
petitions and responses
5. Busting and booking
arrest, investigation, detention, resolution
6. The strong arm of the law
security and muscle
7. Conclusion.