Book excerpt: The first full-length description and analysis of how dispute resolution by mediation and arbitration developed in the Ancient Greek world, from Homer to Cleopatra. Based on all the primary sources, with the relevant extracts in new translations: not only poetry, drama, history, philosophy and oratory, but also inscriptions and the mass of arbitration documents surviving as papyri. Introductory chapters deal with theory and method, language and translation, and the Greek legal system. The conclusions show how mediation and arbitration were partners in the ordinary processes of dispute resolution, and widespread in all the times and places examined. Publisher's note.