ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the causes of war. The two kinds of causes Polybius accurately distinguishes from each other and from beginnings of war, such as the stag was in the war between Aeneas and Turnus. In the same sense also Aelian speaks of the beginnings of wars, and Diodorus Siculus, giving an account of the war of the Lacedaemonians against the Eleans, expresses the same idea by using the words 'pretexts' and 'beginnings'. Wars that are undertaken by public authority have, it is true, in some respects a legal effect, as do judicial decisions, but they are not on that account more free from wrong if they are undertaken without cause. Justin tells how two kings of Thrace were deprived of their royal power by Alexander's father, Philip, who exemplified the deceit and wickedness of a brigand. No other just cause for undertaking war can there be excepting injury received.
