The Problem of Greek Nationality

Abstract

THE problem which I propose to discuss in this paper is one which must strike anyone who ponders at all about the history of Greece. Can we speak of a Greek nation? as we all know, was never united until the Roman conquest within a single state; consequently there can be no history of Greece in the sense that there is a history of Rome. But the concept of a Greek nation trying to realize itself (and failing) has been adopted by many historians as the most fruitful criterion for interpreting the kaleidoscopic relations of the Greek cities. A few quotations will make this clear. The story of the Greeks possesses coordination and the true dignity of history only where it strives continuously, and with ever broader results, towards effective political unity, namely in Greece proper. These words of De Sanctis' can be paralleled from Volume 6 of the Cambridge Ancient History,2 where Cary writes, [The Athenian Empire] represented the first resolute attempt to solve the key problem of Greek politics, the assembling of the scattered Greek communities into a United States of Greece, or from a recent work by Pohlenz,8 The League of Corinth brought to fruition that unity of the Hellenes for which the best elements in the people had for so long yearned.