otice the set-up. I’ll contextualize it a bit for modern times: “In the absence of justice, what is government?” I’m not saying we are there (yet), and I’m not saying we are not.
Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kindgoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on.
Saint Augustine, The City of God, book 4, chapter 4.
