Chapter 3 begins the conceptual history of the nation where our current vocabulary originates, in classical Greece and Rome. It examines the conception of cultural-linguistic communities in the context of the two principal alternatives to the nation-state – city-state and empire. The chapter moves from Greek conceptions of ethnicity as depicted in Herodotus’ Histories to Cicero’s reflections on the relationship between national and political communities in the Roman Empire and concludes with an examination of the idea of the nation in the Vulgate, the late fourth-century translation of the Bible. The analysis shows that ethnos, gens, and natio referred to communities defined by descent, language, and geographical homeland but were not understood in a political sense. Moreover, Roman thinkers were not only acutely aware of the twofold loyalties to nation and polity; they also sought practical arrangements for accommodating diverse national groups within a single political order. The chapter discusses Roman ideas on citizenship, administrative subsidiarity, and legal pluralism.

Polyarchies (rule of the many) require more social and political skills than monarchies (rule of one) and hence arose later – from monarchies rather than directly from tribes. Carthage, some Greek city-states, and early Rome are almost the only ancient republics. All were at or near the Mediterranean coast. These republics mostly were oligarchies (rule of the few), but even democracies meant rule of the many but not all: Slaves and free noncitizens often outnumbered citizen families. The Greek states, monarchies or republics, formed a mutual fighting community, often vicious. Republics depended on a committed citizenship and faced a size trap. If they remained small, they remained vulnerable externally. If they expanded, they lacked mechanisms to include subdued people as citizens and became fragile internally. Only Carthage and Rome attempted major expansion, and only Rome succeeded, but this was the end of the republic. It may also be the peak of chattel slavery in world history: Soon three out of seven million people in Italy were slaves. By the year 1, republics looked like evolutionary dead ends. Monarchies, hereditary or not, prevailed.