[139] Isaiah, x. 7 sqq.; xxxvii. 24 sqq. Ezekiel, xxxi. 10 sq. Zephaniah, ii. 15.
[140] Mürdter-Delitzsch, Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens, p. 104.
[141] Numbers, xiii. 27; xiv. 7. Ezekiel, xx. 6, 15.
[142] Deuteronomy, vii. 6.
[143] Herodotus, i. 134.
[144] Rawlinson, in his translation of Herodotus, i. 260 sq. n. 5.
[145] Pindar, Pythia, vi. 3 sq. Idem, Nemea, vii. 33 sq. Aeschylus, Eumenides, 40, 166. Sophocles, Œdipus Tyrannus, 480, 898. Livy, xxxviii. 48. Cf. Herodotus’ theory of “extremities” (iii. 115 sq.), and Rawlinson’s commentary, in his translation of Herodotus, i. 260 sq. n. 6.
[146] Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulide, 1400 sq. Aristotle, Politica, i. 2, 6, pp. 1252 b, 1255 a.
In the archaic State the national feeling is in some cases greatly strengthened by the religious feeling; whilst in other instances religion inspires devotion to the family, clan, or caste rather than to the nation, or constitutes a tie not only between compatriots but between members of different political communities. The ancestor-worship of the Chinese has hardly been conducive to genuine patriotism. Whatever devotion to the common weal may have prevailed among the Vedic Aryans, it has certainly passed away beneath the influence of Brahmanism, or been narrowed down to the caste, the village, or the family.[147] The Zoroastrian Ahura-Mazda was not a national god, but “the god of the Aryans,” that is, of all the peoples who inhabited ancient Iran; and these were constantly at war with one another.[148] Muhammedans, whilst animated with a common hatred towards the Christians, show little public spirit in relation to their respective countries,[149] composed as they are of a variety of loosely connected, often very heterogeneous elements, ruled over by a monarch whose power is in many districts more nominal than real. In ancient Greece and Rome patriotism no doubt contained a religious element—each state and town had its tutelary gods and heroes, who were considered its proper masters;[150] but in the first place it was free citizens’ love of their native institutions, a civic virtue which grew up on the soil of liberty. When the two Spartans who were sent to Xerxes to be put to death were advised by one of his governors to surrender themselves to the king, their answer was, “Had you known what freedom is, you would have bidden us fight for it, not with the spear only, but with the battle-axe.”[151] And of the Athenians who lived at the time of the Persian wars, Demosthenes said that they were ready to die for their country rather than to see it enslaved, and that they considered the outrages and insults which befell him who lived in a subjugated city to be more terrible than death.[152] In classical antiquity “the influence of patriotism thrilled through every fibre of moral and intellectual life.”[153] In some Greek cities emigration was prohibited by law, at Argos even on penalty of death.[154] Plato, in the Republic, sacrificed the family to the interests of the State. Cicero placed our duty to our country next after our duty to the immortal gods and before our duty to our parents.[155] “Of all connections,” he says, “none is more weighty, none is more dear, than that between every individual and his country. Our parents are dear to us; our children, our kinsmen, our friends, are dear to us; but our country comprehends alone all the endearments of us all. What good man would hesitate to die for her if he could do her service?”[156]
[147] Wheeler, History of India, ii. 586 sq. See also Leist, Alt-arisches Jus Gentium, p. 529.