>For most of Republican history there was no formal law criminalising homicide: the Roman government was so deliberately decentralised that it did not see itsel

>For most of Republican history there was no formal law criminalising homicide: the Roman government was so deliberately decentralised that it did not see itself as a state which was harmed by private homicide. The murder of a private person did not affect the various magistrates’ power, and therefore the state need not interfere. This is absolutely beautiful.