Cicero's Republic and Christian Arguments for Rebellion against Tyrants

Most political theorists are familiar with Augustine's story of Alexander asking a captured pirate where he got the right to steal from other ships, and receiving the answer that he got it from the same place Alexander got the right to conquer other countries. Most will recognize Augustine's famous summation of the point of the story: "Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms?�1 [1] However, few are aware of the story's first appearance in the work of a major pre-Christian political philosopher, the idea that much earlier philosopher intended to express with it, Augustine's original purpose for quoting the story and embracing the idea, the role that idea plays in Augustine's larger concept of politics, or the significance that Augustine's embrace of that idea would have for the history of Christian political theory.