A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

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and into villages. Each of these divisions had a “governor” and a

“royal” scribe. As a result of the reclamation project in the Fayyum,

the Ptolemies divided this region into three sectors or merides.

2.1.3.3 Local

At the local level, villages were in the charge of mayors and increas-

ingly in the control of a village scribe (komogrammateus) under the

Ptolemies. Local temples had their own administration in charge of

the cult and of their land and other businesses.

2.1.3.4 Census

A census of some kind had occurred in Egypt in periods of central

control since the Old Kingdom biennial cattle count. The Karnak

Ostracon (see 1.3.1 above) from the third century B.C.E. suggests at

least the attempt to have knowledge of the agricultural conditions of

Egypt in toto. Household lists exist both in Greek and in Demotic

from the Ptolemaic period. The salt tax introduced by the Ptolemy

II Philadelphus functioned as a kind of poll tax.^42

2.1.4 The Courts^43

2.1.4.1 The power to judge was first in the hands of the gods. The

king, as earthly guarantor of justice (Maat), was the final arbitrator

of legal disputes, although he was rarely involved in practice. In the-

ory, one could petition the king directly, as always.^44

2.1.4.2 The administration of justice in Egyptian law was, in the

first instance, in the hands of priest-judges who presided over local

courts ('.wy n wpy, lit., “place of judgment,” Greek laokritai), which

met in front of the local temple gate.^45 Divine oracles remained an

important method of arbitration.^46 In the Ptolemaic period, there

(^42) The salt tax is, in the main, documented for the third century B.C.E.
(^43) Taubenschlag, Law.. ., 479–524; briefly treated by Diod. Sic. I, 75–76.
(^44) Taubenschlag, Law.. ., 495.
(^45) Mélèze-Modrzejewski, “Chrématistes et Laocrites.. .”; Quaegebeur, “La jus-
tice.. .” On the title “priest-judges,” see Quaegebeur, “La justice.. .,” 207, n. 40.
These judges may have been selected from among the “elders” in the temple (Allam,
“Egyptian Law Courts.. .,” 120). These courts were not the same as the court of
thirty mentioned by Diod. Sic. 1.75. In the Fayyum, alaokrisionappears to have
been a separate building (Allam, “Egyptian Law Courts.. .,” 123).
(^46) Erichsen, Demotische Orakelfragen.. .; Menu, “Les juges égyptiens.. .”; Martin,
“The Child.. .”; Zauzich, “Orakelfragen...”
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