chapter one

Doing Justice to Others

T

he abduction of Helen of Troy was the archetypal example of a
wrongful act that led to an outbreak of war. A lawyer might quibble
that, strictly speaking, it was not the face itself that “launched a thousand
ships,” but rather the unlawful taking. In any event, though, the thrilling
tale belongs (alas) to legend and not to history. More fi rmly in the realm of
fact— if less resplendent as literature— was an event in the late fi ft h century
bc, related by the Roman historian Livy. It was a period of Roman history
(long before there was a Roman Empire) marked by deep po liti cal and social
confl ict between the patrician and plebeian orders. Th is disunity naturally
impaired the fl edgling state’s ability to present a united face to actual or po-
tential enemies abroad. But an incident in 438 or 437 bc had the eff ect of
instantly uniting the Roman people against the neighboring state of Veii. In
that year, the ruler of Veii, Lars Tolumnius, ordered the murder of four en-
voys sent to him from Rome. Th is deed was described by Livy not merely as
an act of “unspeakable brutality” but also as an egregious violation of “the
law of nations (ius gentium).” Th e Roman people— plebeian and patrician
alike— were as one in their outrage, and war was inevitable. Th e result was a
confl ict of some twelve years’ duration, eventuating in a Roman victory (with-
out the assistance of a wooden horse).
Perhaps there would have been war between the two states anyway, sparked
by a diff erent incident of some kind. Th ere was, though, a general belief in the
ancient world— not merely in Italy or the Mediterranean area— that there must
be a precipitating event of some kind. A mere general feeling of hostility was
not regarded as suffi cient for the launching of a war. Th ere had to be some kind
of just cause— or, at a minimum, a semblance of one. Moreover, this belief