| Actually he picked good examples. "Greek nationalism developed around the same time." This not true. While the 'nation state' as a legal formalism didn't arrive until recently - the 'Greek identity' existed in antiquity. Not only that - Greek identity was maintained throughout 2000 years of occupation! That's how strong and 'not arbitrary' their cultural foundation is. If smaller Greek states were 'arbitrary' - they would have evaporated during Roman occupation. But an entity the Romans called 'Graecia' (sound familiar?) changed hands several times throughout history - more or less intact as a people and culture. Though Greece was a collection of smaller states, and never a unified entity - they shared very similar cultural foundations, which were distinct from those around them (most of which changed and/or evaporated). When the Persians invaded 'Greece' - the infighting Greek states bound together and acted more or less as an entity to push out the invaders. Point being: 'Invading Persians' was not the same thing as 'Spartans invading Athens'. Nation states were not arbitrarily formed, they are mostly ethnically oriented, and some of the boundaries have not changed in eons. The thesis that 'nation states are arbitrary' is easily dismissed by having a look at maps of Europe throughout time. The state of Sweden is not some random thing, it's where 'the Swedes' live - roughly. If the lines were 'arbitrary' - we'd see a mishmash of weird lines, crossing ethnicities - much like the somewhat arbitrary divisions between Syria, Iraq, Kuwait etc.. But they are not. Funny enough, I think the legal IP questions of this article have nothing to do with this issue! For once, we're dealing with a more secular, legal thing, I think. Summary: 'Graecia' was Greece literally more than 2000 years ago, the formation of a 'Greek state' is not arbitrary. |
You're reading an awful lot into a single anecdote. There were other occasions where some Greek polities allied with Persians against others.