"All the same, a surprisingly high number of what we today consider “public services” in Athens were provided by private, voluntary means rather than by governmental force. This is true to a great extent, moreover, of precisely those services for which even many libertarians consider monopoly state provision essential: namely police and courts."Apart from a body of publicly owned slaves charged with keeping order at public meetings (and, if need be, rounding up citizens in ...the marketplace to ensure a quorum in the Assembly), Athens had no police force. (The same was true of many ancient societies, including the Roman Republic, though not the Roman Empire.) In Athens, investigating crimes was a task left to private citizens, as was the job of getting a defendant to show up at his trial. Given Athens’ lack of any claim to a monopoly of force, it’s debatable whether it even counts as a state by standard definitions.
"The courts themselves were publicly funded, but the state nonetheless absented itself from many central aspects of judicial procedure. For example, Athens had no public prosecutor and no criminal law; if you accused your neighbor of a crime, it was your job to prosecute him yourself. And that didn’t mean hiring a lawyer to present your case for you; private experts could be hired to help you prepare your case, but the actual presentation had to be made by the complainant personally. (The same was true for the defendant.)"
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