Greek city states had a national identity

The argument

In Ancient Greece there were over a thousand different city states, each with its own cultural identity. Athens was known for producing scientists, philosophers and writers, while Sparta was famed for its prowess at warfare, and each city state had its own system of government, varying from rule by kings to democracy. By any institutional measure these were separate polities: separate laws, separate rulers, separate armies, and no common authority above them. If national identity required a nation state, there was nothing here for such an identity to attach to. Yet it existed. Despite their differences, these city states felt a common identity when fighting the non-Greek state of Persia, and the Greek victory was seen as a triumph for Greek culture and politics — not as a victory for Athens, or for Sparta, or for whichever cities happened to have supplied the most men. The identity being expressed was Greek, and it was expressed by communities that spent much of their history in competition with one another. What brought it into view was the presence of a non-Greek adversary, which is itself informative: the identity was defined partly by contrast, and so did not depend on the internal uniformity that a shared state might have imposed. Two conclusions follow. The first is that nationalist identity has existed since before modern nation states, because here is a case of it operating where no such state was available to create it. The second is that the content of the identity need not be uniform for it to hold: what being Greek meant specifically varied from city to city, and it bound them together anyway. Groups do not have to be culturally identical to feel a strong bond to one another.

Context

City state: a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state.

Premises

Counter-arguments

This sense of Ancient Greek nationalism is very loose and was formed only in the face of the threat of Persian conquest: before that, the cultural differences between many Greek city states had caused them to fight amongst themselves. Using this as a clear example of nationalism fails to recognise that it was not strongly developed, and only emerged at a point of crisis.

Rejecting the premises

1. This nationalism only emerged when Greece was under threat from Persia, not necessarily beforehand. 2. City states had often fought amongst themselves.

Framing

This is a very specific argument drawing on the Greco-Persian Wars of 492 BCE to 449 BCE, suggesting that nationalism existed amongst these Greek city states when they were attacked by Persia.