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There are many European citizens who are appalled by the claim of the government and the Greek people that it applied them a release or reduction of the huge debt incurred in previous years themselves. There are also other citizens who analyzed the origin of that debt, which is largely considered abusive and they are more comprehensive.

The current situation is not at all comparable with the old, but I will offer two series of texts, some referring to Solon, who faced the untenable situation legal situation of many Athenian citizens back in the sixth century BC with legal modifications, they are indebted to the slavery; and other texts that reveal the particular attitude of an individual, also knocked down by particular debt, which is reflected for example by Aristophanes in his comedy the Clouds.

Broadly speaking, ancient Athens, and similarly the rest of Greece, went from a monarchy atomization of several villages to the union of these centers around one more important, the polis or city-state  in which  the monarchy gives way to aristocracy and tyranny and this then in Athens to democracy.

In this long process, about which we have a lot of information but also a lot of confusion, the the ownership of the land was a serious problem, never solved, which led to the ruin and slavery of many citizens by debt. At the beginning of the sixth century B.C. small farmers depended on aristocratic families that concentrated ownership of most of the land. These small farmers had fallen into slavery and dependence by  continued borrowing.

In that scenario Solon (c. 638 a. C.-558 BC.), one of the Seven Sages of Greece, lived as the great lawgiver respected by rich and poor, who tried to improve the situation of the impoverished citizen and put the foundations on which later the first democracy (government of the people) on  the world would be built.

About Solon we have much information especially from Aristotle's work "The Constitution of Athens", but also from  the biography of Plutarch in his famous work "Parallel Lives" and also Diogenes Laertius tells us on him  in his "Lives and Opinions of the eminent philosophers. "

Diogenes begins this biography precisely with information that is relevant to the case:

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, I, 45

45. Solon, the son of Execestides, was born at Salamis. His first achievement was the σεισάχθεια or Law of Release, which he introduced at Athens; its effect was to ransom persons and property. For men used to borrow money on personal security, and many were forced from poverty to become serfs or daylabourers. He then first renounced his claim to a debt of seven talents due to his father, and encouraged others to follow his example. This law of his was called σεισάχθεια, and the reason is obvious.

He next went on to frame the rest of his laws, which would take time to enumerate, and inscribed them on the revolving pillars. (translated by Robert Drew Hicks)

Aristotle gives us the best information about Solon, referring also to the doubts raised about the performance of Solon when his friends took advantage of inside information they had. Then collects all Plutarch.

Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, 6

Solon having become master of affairs made the people free both at the time and for the future by prohibiting loans secured on the person, and he laid down laws, and enacted cancellations of debts both private and public, the measures1 that are known as 'the Shaking-off of Burdens,' meaning that the people shook off their load. In these matters some people try to misrepresent him;  for it happened that when Solon was intending to enact the Shaking-off of Burdens, he informed some of the notables beforehand, and afterwards, as those of popular sympathies say, he was outmaneuvered by his friends, but according to those who want to malign him he himself also took a share. For these persons borrowed money and bought up a quantity of land, and when not long afterwards the cancellation of debts took place they were rich men; and this is said to be the origin of the families subsequently reputed to be ancestrally wealthy. Nevertheless, the account of those of popular sympathies is more credible; for considering that he was so moderate and public-spirited in the rest of his conduct that, when he had the opportunity to reduce one of the two parties to subjection and so to be tyrant of the city, he incurred the enmity of both, and valued honor and the safety of the state more than his own aggrandizement, it is not probable that he besmirched himself in such worthless trifles.  And that he got this opportunity is testified by the disordered state of affairs, and also he himself alludes to it in many places in his poems, and everybody else agrees with him. We are bound therefore to consider this charge to be false. (Translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.)

It should be noted that from the V century the abolition of debts was seen as an act of anarchy; and this remains without doubt the prevailing view today between policies and financial institutions. This is indicated for example by Plato on Republic 565e, (and also Isocrates on Panathenaic 259 and Demosthenes on Against Timocrates 149).

Plato, referring to tyrants, expressed his negative opinion on the cancellation of debts and tactics of tyrants to win over these people and then promote wars to establish himself in chief:

Plato, Republic, 565e

“And is it not true that in like manner a leader of the people who, getting control of a docile mob,1 does not withhold his hand from the shedding of tribal blood,2 but by the customary unjust accusations brings a citizen into court and assassinates him, blotting out3 a human life, and with unhallowed tongue and lips that have tasted kindred blood, banishes and slays and hints at the abolition of debts and the partition of lands1—is it not the inevitable consequence and a decree of fate2 that such a one be either slain by his enemies or become a tyrant and be transformed from a man into a wolf?”

566d

….
“Then at the start and in the first days does he not smile2 upon all men and greet everybody he meets and deny that he is a tyrant, and promise many things in private and public, and having freed men from debts, and distributed lands to the people and his own associates, he affects a gracious and gentle manner to all?” (Translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.).

Soon later, Aristotle refers the actions of Solon in monetary policy reference. You can also see here a parallel: if Athens in ancient times lived in the commercial and monetary framework of Aegina and wanted to create its own monetary system to promote their development, now there is also a monetary problem between the current euro and previous drachma.

Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, 10

Solon therefore seems to have laid down these enactments of a popular nature in his laws; while before his legislation his democratic reform was his cancellation of debts, and afterwards his raising the standard of the measures and weights and of the coinage. [2] For it was in his time that the measures were made larger than those of Pheidon,1 and that the mina, which previously had a weight of seventy drachmae,2 was increased to the full hundred. The ancient coin-type was the two-drachma piece. Solon also instituted weights corresponding to the currency, the talent weighing sixty-three minae, and a fraction proportionate to the additional three minae was added to the stater3 and the other weights. (Translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.)

Obviously neither the causes nor the situation look like today, though perhaps the old  landed aristocrats are predatory bankers today; in any case certainly the suffering of poor people is very similar.

Most authors interpret  the abolition of debts as a complete cancellation and not as a reduction, Moreover, but another some think that  the abolition of debts by Solon probably was not total, but what he did a release or reduction.  What he  got was the completely abolishing of slavery by debt.

Plutarch tells us at greater length in a text which will not fail to surprise us, for example when he tells how in those times of severe economic situation there is always some indecent willing to take advantage of public performance taking advantage of inside information. Again, and they are thousands of times, I repeat “nihil novum sub sole ".

Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, Solón, 13-16:

13,2,ss
At that time, too, the disparity between the rich and the poor had culminated, as it were, and the city was in an altogether perilous condition; it seemed as if the only way to settle its disorders and stop its turmoils was to establish a tyranny. All the common people were in debt to the rich. For they either tilled their lands for them, paying them a sixth of the increase (whence they were called Hectemorioi and Thetes), or else they pledged their persons for debts and could be seized by their creditors, some becoming slaves at home, and others being sold into foreign countries.  Many, too, were forced to sell their own children (for there was no law against it), or go into exile, because of the cruelty of the money-lenders. But the most and sturdiest of them began to band together and exhort one another not to submit to their wrongs, but to choose a trusty man as their leader, set free the condemned debtors, divide the land anew, and make an entire change in the form of government.

14
At this point, the wisest of the Athenians cast their eyes upon Solon. They saw that he was the one man least implicated in the errors of the time; that he was neither associated with the rich in their injustice, nor involved in the necessities of the poor. They therefore besought him to come forward publicly and put an end to the prevailing dissensions. And yet Phanias the Lesbian writes that Solon of his own accord played a trick upon both parties in order to save the city, and secretly promised to the poor the distribution of land which they desired, and to the rich, validation of their securities.

But Solon himself says that he entered public life reluctantly, and fearing one party's greed and the other party's arrogance. However, he was chosen archon to succeed Philombrotus, and made mediator and legislator for the crisis, the rich accepting him readily because he was well-to do, and the poor because he was honest.
…..
15,3
…
Now later writers observe that the ancient Athenians used to cover up the ugliness of things with auspicious and kindly terms, giving them polite and endearing names. Thus they called harlots "companions," taxes "contributions," the garrison of a city its "guard," and the prison a "chamber." But Solon was the first, it would seem, to use this device, when he called his cancelling of debts a "disburdenment." For the first of his public measures was an enactment that existing debts should be remitted, and that in future no one should lend money on the person of a borrower.  Some writers, however, and Androtion is one of them, affirm that the poor were relieved not by a cancelling of debts, but by a reduction of the interest upon them, and showed their satisfaction by giving the name of "disburdenment" to this act of humanity, and to the augmentation of measures and the purchasing power of money which accompanied it. For he made the mina to consist of a hundred drachmas, which before had contained only seventy-three, so that by paying the same amount of money, but money of lesser value, those who had debts to discharge were greatly benefited, and those who accepted such payments were no losers. But most writers agree that the "disburdenment" was a removal of all debt, and with such the poems of Solon are more in accord. For in these he proudly boasts that from the mortgaged lands

"He took away the record-stones that everywhere were planted;
Before, Earth was in bondage, now she is free."

And of the citizens whose persons had been seized for debt, some he brought back from foreign lands,

"uttering no longer Attic speech,
So long and far their wretched wanderings;
And some who here at home in shameful servitude
Were held"

he says he set free.

This undertaking is said to have involved him in the most vexatious experience of his life. For when he had set out to abolish debts, and was trying to find arguments and a suitable occasion for the step, he told some of his most trusted and intimate friends, namely, Conon, Cleinias, and Hipponicus, that he was not going to meddle with the land, but had determined to cancel debts. They immediately took advantage of this confidence and anticipated Solon's decree by borrowing large sums from the wealthy and buying up great estates. Then, when the decree was published, they enjoyed the use of their properties, but refused to pay the moneys due their creditors. This brought Solon into great condemnation and odium, as if he had not been imposed upon with the rest, but were a party to the imposition.However, this charge was at once dissipated by his well-known sacrifice of five talents. For it was found that he had lent so much, and he was the first to remit this debt in accordance with his law. Some say that the sum was fifteen talents, and among them is Polyzelus the Rhodian. But his friends were ever after called "chreocopidae," or debt-cutters.

16
He pleased neither party, however; the rich were vexed because he took away their securities for debt, and the poor still more, because he did not re distribute the land, as they had expected, nor make all men equal and alike in their way of living, as Lycurgus did. But Lycurgus was eleventh in descent from Heracles, and had been king in Lacedaemon for many years. He therefore had great authority, many friends, and power to support his reforms in the commonwealth. He also employed force rather than persuasion, insomuch that he actually lost his eye thereby, and most effectually guaranteed the safety and unanimity of the city by making all its citizens neither poor nor rich. Solon, on the contrary, could not secure this feature in his commonwealth, since he was a man of the people and of modest station; yet he in no wise pacted short of his real power, relying as he did only on the wishes of the citizens and their confidence in him. Nevertheless he gave offence to the greater part of them, who expected different results, as he himself says of them in the lines:—

"Then they had extravagant thoughts of me, but now, incensed,
All look askance at me, as if I were their foe."

And yet had any other man, he says, acquired the same power,

"He had not held the people down, nor made an end
Until he had confounded all, and skimmed the cream."

Soon, however, they perceived the advantages of his measure, ceased from their private fault-finding, and offered a public sacrifice, which they called Seisactheia, or Disburdenment. They also appointed Solon to reform the constitution and make new laws, laying no restrictions whatever upon him, but putting everything into his hands, magistracies, assemblies, court-of law, and councils. He was to fix the property qualification for each of these, their numbers, and their times of meeting, abrogating and maintaining existing institutions at his pleasure. (Translation by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library edition, Cambridge, MA and London, 1914).

Let us now turn from drawing  the situation from the point of view of political or public life to the opinion of a private and knocked down  citizen  by debt.

"Clouds" is one of the eleven preserved comedies of Aristophanes (444 BC -.. 385 BC) and it is one of the most famous because in it a merciless caricature of Socrates is portrayed as a charlatan sophist; the comedy certainly contributed significantly to creating the bad citizen and social environment conducive to put him to death, the wisest man of Greece as the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi says.

But some parallels could be established between the argument of the Clouds and the current situation in Greece   in which some sectors intend not to  pay State debts owed to creditor banks.

The point of the comparison is certainly risky and reader (whom I invite to do a complete reading of a work, which, like all the comedies, is not too long, I think that in just over an hour you can make your reading)  can see parallels and similarities and striking differences.

Note to turn a profit that  the comedy of Aristophanes is not critical to lenders, who are different at all, fair and abusive greedy, and the proposed learn not to pay lenders turns against creditors to the point to subvert the natural order of respect of  children to parents; in the comedy the son, he forced by the father to study with the Sophists for not paying debts, just attacks  his own father  justifying "sophistically" this aggression. As a result, the debtor just burns  the Socratic school where he was taught to turn the injustice to right.

That is, basically the "sophistry" attitude of some Greeks  not to want to pay debts is not a good proposal.

Of course, we,  to have a more accurate picture of the current Greek problem, should know better what is the current debt, how it was generated, how are the conditions imposed by a ruthless bank whose sole purpose is to make money and more money regardless of the consequences and what role they play the states and European Institutions whose primary goal should be to consolidate the welfare of all Europeans, that's why they invented the Union.

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Well, I transcribe some texts from comedy of Aristophanes and each reader can think it reasonably.

In the comedy, an old man named Strepsiades, burdened by debts owed because of the love of their child rearing horse, asked the him  to go to school of Socrates and learn the Lower Argument to defeat their creditors and not return anything to any of the lenders holding in court contrary to justice reasons.

Note: Strepsiades is a "speaking name"; it means “who spins, goes back, gives, does laps”, by he turns in bed because his  debts or because he turns the Socratic system, whose school (physicallyIt it did not exist) he burns. Estrpsiades could therefore be "rebellious, the restless.

Verses 1-131:

Strepsiades: O dear ! O dear !
O Lord ! O Zeus ! these nights, how long they are.
Will they ne'er pass ? will the day never come ?
Surely I heard the cock crow, hours ago.
Yet still my servants snore. These are new customs.
O 'ware of* war for many various reasons ;
One fears in war even to flog one's servants.
And here's this hopeful son of mine wrapped up
Snoring and sweating under five thick blankets.
Come, we'll wrap up and snore in opposition.
{Tries to sleep,)
But I can't sleep a wink, devoured and bitten
By ticks, and bugbears, duns ; and race-horses,
All through this son of mine. He curls his hair,
And sports his thoroughbreds, and drives his tandem ;
Even in dreams he rides : while I — Fm ruined,
Now that the Moon has reached her twentieths,
And paying-time comes on. Boy ! light a lamp,
And fetch my ledger : now I'll reckon up
Who are my creditors, and what I owe them.
Come, let me see then. Fifty pounds to Pasias !
Why fifty pounds to Pasias ? what were they for ?
O, for the hack from Corinth. O dear ! O dear !
I wish my eye had been hacked out before —

Pheidippides.:  (in his sleep.) You are cheating, Philon ; keep to your own side.

Streps.: Ah ! there it is ! that's what has ruined me !
Even in his very sleep he thinks of horses.

Pheid.: (in Ms sleep.) How many heats do the war-chariots run ?

Streps.: A pretty many heats you have run your father.
Now then, what debt assails me after Pasias ?
A curricle and wheels. Twelve pounds. Amynias.

Pheid.: (in his sleep.) Here, give the horse a roll, and take him home.

Streps.: You have rolled me out of house and home, my boy,
Cast in some suits already, while some swear
They'll seize my goods for payment.

Pheid.: Good, my father,
What makes you toss so restless all night long ?

Streps.: There's a bumbailiff from the mattress bites me.

Pheid.: Come now, I prithee, let me sleep in peace.

Streps.: Well then, you sleep : only be sure of this,
These debts will fall on your own head at last.
Alas, alas ! For ever cursed be that same matchmaker,
Who stirred me up to marry your poor mother.
Mine in the country was the pleasantest life,
Untidy, easy-going, unrestrained,
Brimming with olives, sheepfolds, honey-bees.
Ah ! then I married — I a rustic — her
A fine town-lady, niece of Megacles.
A regular, proud, luxurious, Coesyra.
This wife I married, and we came together,
I rank with wine-lees, fig-boards, greasy woolpacks ;
She all with scents, and saffron, and tongue-kissings,
Feasting, expense, and lordly modes of loving.
She was not idle though, she was too fast.
I used to tell her, holding out my cloke,
Threadbare and worn ; Wife, you re too fast by half.

Servant-boy.: Here's no more oil remaining in the lamp.

Streps.: O me ! what made you light the tippling lamp ?
Come and be whipp'd.

Seev.: Why, what would you whip me for?

Streps.: Why did you put one of those thick wicks in ?
Well, when at last to me and my good woman
This hopeful son was born, our son and heir,
Why then we took to wrangle on the name.
She was for giving him some knightly name,
" Callippides/" " Xanthippus," or " Charippus : "
I wished " Pheidonides," his grandsire's name.
Thus for some time we argued : till at last
We compromised it in Pheidippides.
This boy she took, and used to spoil him, saying,
Oh ! when you are driving to the Acropolis, clad
Like Megacles, in your purple ; whilst I said
Oh ! when the goats you are driving from the fells,
Clad like your father, in your sheepskin coat.
Well, he eared nought for my advice, but soon
A galloping consumption caught my fortunes.
Now cogitating all night long, I've found
One way, one marvellous transcendent way,
Which if he'll follow^ we may yet be saved. 
So, — but, however, I must rouse him first ;
But how to rouse him kindliest ? that's the rub.
Pheidippides, my sweet one.

Pheid.: Well, my father.

Streps.: Shake hands, Pheidippides, shake hands and kiss me.

Pheid.: There ; what's the matter ?

Streps.: Dost thou love me, boy ?

Pheid.: Ay ! by Poseidon there, the God of horses.

Streps.: No, no, not that : miss out the God of horses,
That God's the origin of all my evils.
But if you love me from your heart and soul,
My son, obey me.

Pheid.: Very well : what in ?

Streps.: Strip with all speed, strip off your present habits,
And go and learn what I'll advise you to.

Pheid.: Name your commands.

Streps.: Will you obey ?

Pheid.: I will,
By Dionysus !

Streps.: Well then, look this way.
See you that wicket and the lodge beyond ?

Pheid.: I see : and prithee what is that, my father ?

Streps.: That is the thinking-house of sapient souls.
There dwell the men who teach — aye, who persuade us,
That Heaven is one vast fire-extinguisher
Placed round about us, and that we're the cinders.
Aye, and they'll teach (only they'll want some money,)
How one may speak and conquer, right or wrong.

Pheid.: Come, tell their names.

Streps.: Well, I can't quite remember,
But they're deep thinkers, and true gentlemen.

Pheid.: Out on the rogues ! I know them. Those rank pedants,
Those palefaced, barefoot vagabonds you mean :
That Socrates, poor wretch, and Chaerephon.

Streps.: Oh ! Oh ! hush ! hush ! don't use those foolish words ;
But if the sorrows of my barley touch you,
Enter their Schools and cut the Turf for ever.

Pheid.: I wouldn't go, so help me Dionysus,
For all Leogoras's breed of Phasians !

Streps.: Go, I beseech you, dearest, dearest son,

Go and be taught.

Pheid.: And what would you have me learn ?

Streps.: 'Tis known that in their Schools they keep two Logics,
The Worse, Zeus save the mark, the Worse and Better.
This Second Logic then, I mean the Worse one,
They teach to talk unjustly and — prevail.
Think then, you only learn that Unjust Logic,
And all the debts, which I have incurred through you, —
I'll never pay, no, not one farthing of them.

Pheid.: I will not go. How could I face the knights
With all my colour worn and torn away !

Streps.: O ! then, by Earth, you have eat your last of mine,
You, and your coach-horse, and your sigma-brand :
Out with you ! Go to the crows, for all I care.

Pheid.: But uncle Megacles won't leave me long
Without a horse : I'll go to him : good-bye.

Streps.: I’m thrown, by Zeus, but I won't long lie prostrate.
I'll pray the Gods and send myself to school :
I'll go at once and try their thinking-house.
Stay : how can I, forgetful, slow, old fool,
Learn the nice hair-splittings of subtle Logic ?
Well, go I must.

(Translated by Benjamin Bickley Rogers(London G. Bell and Sons,Limited, 1916)

Then  later in verse 236 et seq. Strepsiades  goes to Docrates, who hanging in a basket observes  celestial phenomena and asks him to teach him to argue not to pay his many debts.

Verses 235-246

Streps.: Hello ! what's that ?
Thought draws the essence into water-cress ?
Come down, sweet Socrates, more near my level,
And teach the lessons which I come to learn.

Socr.: And wherefore art thou come ?

Streps.: To learn to speak.
For owing to my horrid debts and duns,
My goods are seized, I'm robbed, and mobbed, and plundered.

Socr.: How did you get involved with your eyes open ?

Streps.: A galloping consumption seized my money.
Come now : do let me learn the unjust Logic
That can shirk debts : now do just let me learn it.
Name your own price, by all the Gods I'll pay it.

(Translated by Benjamin Bickley Rogers, London G. Bell and Sons,Limited, 1916)

Later Strepsiades gets that his son Pheidippides  learn from Socrates the art of the word. Strepsiades confident in the ability of his son refuses debts to creditors, denied the principal and interest.

Verses: 1154-1164

Strepsiades.: " Then shall my song be loud and deep."
Weep, obol-weighers, weep, weep, weep,
Ye, and your principals, and compound interests,
For ye shall never pester me again.
Such a son have I bred,
(He is within this door),

Born to inspire my foemen with dread,

Born his old father's house to restore :
Keen and polished of tongue is he,
He my Champion and Guard shall be,
He will set his old father free,
(Translated by Benjamin Bickley Rogers, London G. Bell and Sons,Limited, 1916)

Interestingly the word “obol-weighers” , ὧβολοστάται, money-lender, is formed from “obol”, which is the currency, with the same sense that we say that someone is a "stingy", a money-grabbing. It seems that the interests were a daily obol,  per mina. (6 obols = 1 drachma; 100 drachmas = 1 mina; 60 minas = 1 talent = about 27 kg .; a laborer earned two obolos a day  and a qualified worker earned four).

It is also curious that the words “principal” , to Archaion,  τἀρχαῖον, the old, is what has been settled with the time,  and interest, "what day to day and month to month increases more and more with the passage of time" ,as he says in verse 1286, are today Tokoi, τόκοι, children, the “product” as we say.

Strepsiades denies their money the creditors and the announce they  will come to justice and shall put a lawsuit.

Finally Strepsiades regret education that he gave his son, able to argue to deny the debt, but also able to justify any injustice, for example the aggression he as  son makes his father with the argument that who loves you, he will make you weep.

Chorus announces it in verses 1302-1319.

Chorus:  What a thing it is to long for matters which are wrong !
For you see how this old man
Is seeking, if he can
His creditors trepan :
And I confidently say
That he will this very day
Such a blow
Amid his prosperous cheats receive, that he will deeply deeply grieve.

For I think that he has won what he wanted for his son,
And the lad has learned the way
All justice to gainsay,
Be it what or where it may :
That he'll trump up any tale,
Right or wrong, and so prevail.
This I know.
Yea ! and perchance the time will come when he shall wish his son were dumb.
(Translated by Benjamin Bickley Rogers, London G. Bell and Sons,Limited, 1916)

And so it happened suddenly, when Strepsiades receives from its own medicine and have to endure how his  child arguments justified the beating he is sticking to himself, to his father. Repented therefore Strepsiades of the "sophistry" education that he gave his son and hurt with their teachers Chaerophon and Socrates, he ends by burning school.

These texts give us an idea of the complexity of things in Greece since ancient times and on this it is not worth the simplicity and opportunism with which some current European politicians, including some Spaniards, act.

They are numerous classic texts in which the patriotism of citizens is exalted, both in Greece, where they felt very superior to the rest of the world, which they call “barbaric” because they do not speak Greek but babble, as in Rome, where they also knew themselves as the dominators of the world.

They are numerous maxims, sentences, phrases that condense in a few words that patriotism or that exalt the heroic services of exemplary citizens.

I will quote and comment on some of these maxims exalting patriotism.

Cicero, in the first of his famous Catilinariae, speeches against Catiline, who had tried to give a coup and to cause a revolution (a plot), pronounces  the sentence in which the homeland  is presented as a mother, topical and everlasting commonplace playing with the deepest feelings of men who are always children of one mother.

The homeland is the common parent of all of us

Patria est communis ómnium parens

But it should  better read the whole paragraph that contextualizes the sentence, with which Cicero invites Catiline to abandon the city, which would be an admission of guilt on their part of the attempt to subvert the republican order and threatening his own mother.

Cicero: Catiline Orations,1,7,17:

If your parents feared and hated you, and if you could by no means pacify them, you would, I think, depart somewhere out of their sight. Now, your country, which is the common parent of all of us, hates and fears you, and has no other opinion of you, than that you are meditating parricide in her case; and will you neither feel awe of her authority, nor deference for her judgment, nor fear of her power?

And she, O Catiline, thus pleads with you, and after a manner silently speaks to you:… (Translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.)

si te parentes timerent atque odissent tui neque eos ratione ulla placare posses, ut opinor, ab eorum oculis aliquo concederes. nunc te patria, quae communis est parens omnium nostrum, odit ac metuit et iam diu nihil te iudicat nisi de parricidio suo cogitare: huius tu neque auctoritatem verebere nec iudicium sequere nec vim pertimesces? [18] quae tecum, Catilina, sic agit et quodam modo tacita loquitur:…

It continues the text of Cicero in what the homeland personified as a concerned mother, talks to his cruel son Catiline. I invite you to read this famous speech that begins with the words a thousand times quoted and with tem  many students perceived at  first the force of oratory:

When, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience?

Quo usque tándem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?

In another work Cicero himself presents the love of the fatherland as the conjunction of all loves that a good citizen has:

Parents are dear; dear are children, relatives, friends; but one native land embraces all our loves. 

Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, pripinqui, familiares; sed omnes ómnium caritates patria una complexa est.  Cicerón,  De officiis, 1,17,57( On Duties or On Obligations )

So the fatherland  should be above everything, even the children, as Seneca says in his tragedy The Trojan Women, 332:

A king must precede the homeland to their children

Praeferre Patriam liberis regem decet:

You should also read the text of Cicero, now of some length, because it sufficiently illustrates us the concept of "homeland" of a nationalist Roman:

De officiis, 1,17 (53-58)

Then, too, there are a great many degrees of closeness or remoteness in human society. To proceed beyond the universal bond of our common humanity, there is the closer one of belonging to the same people, tribe, and tongue, by which men are very closely bound together; it is a still closer relation to be citizens of the same city-state; for fellow-citizens have much in common—forum, temples, colonnades, streets, statutes laws. Courts, rights of suffrage, to say nothing of social and friendly circles and diverse business relations with many.

But a sill closer social union exists between kindred.  Starting with that infinite bond of union of the human race in general, the conception is now confined to a small and narrow circle.

For since the reproductive instinct is by Nature's gift the common possession of all living creatures, the first bond of union is that between husband and wife; the next, that between parents and children; then we find one home, with everything in common. And this is the foundation of civil government, the nursery, as it were, of the state. Then follow the bonds between brothers and sisters, and next those of first and then of second cousins; and when they can no longer be sheltered under one roof, they go out into other homes, as into colonies. Then follow between these, in turn, marriages and connections by marriage, and from these again a new stock of relations; and from this propagation and after-growth states have their beginnings. The bonds of common blood hold men fast through good-will and affection; for it means much to share in common the same family traditions, the same forms of domestic worship, and the same ancestral tombs.

But of all the bonds of fellowship, there is none1 more noble, none more powerful than when good men of congenial character are joined in intimate friendship; for really, if we discover in another that moral goodness on which I dwell so much, it attracts us and makes us friends to the one in whose character it seems to dwell.

And while every virtue attracts us and makes us love those who seem to possess it, still justice and generosity do so most of all. Nothing, moreover, is more conducive to love and intimacy than compatibility of character in good men; for when two people have the same ideals and the same tastes, it is a natural consequence that each loves the other as himself; and the result is, as Pythagoras requires of ideal friendship, that several are united in one.
Another strong bond of fellowship is effected by mutual interchange of kind services; and as long as these kindnesses are mutual and acceptable, those between whom they are interchanged are united by the ties of an enduring intimacy.

But when with a rational spirit you have surveyed1 the whole field, there is no social relation among them all more close, none more dear than that which links each one of us with our country. Parents [p. 61] are dear; dear are children, relatives, friends; but one native land embraces all our loves; and who that is true would hesitate to give his life for her, if by his death he could render her a service? So much the more execrable are those monsters who have torn their fatherland to pieces with every form of outrage and who are2 and have been3 engaged in compassing her utter destruction.

Now, if a contrast and comparison were to be made to find out where most of our moral obligation is due, country would come first, and parents; for their services have laid us under the heaviest obligation; next come children and the whole family, who look to us alone for support and can have no other protection; finally, our kinsmen, with whom we live on good terms and with whom, for the most part, our lot is one.

All needful material assistance is, therefore, due first of all to those whom I have named; but intimate relationship of life and living, counsel, conversation, encouragement, comfort, and sometimes even reproof flourish best in friendships. And that friendship is sweetest which is cemented by congeniality of character. (An English Translation  by Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913).

[53] 17. Gradus autem plures sunt societatis hominum. Ut enim ab illa infinita discedatur, propior est eiusdem gentis, nationis, linguae, qua maxime homines coniunguntur; interius etiam est eiusdem esse civitatis; multa enim sunt civibus inter se communia, forum, fana, porticus, viae, leges, iura: iudicia, suffragia, consuetudines praeterea et familiaritates multisque cum multis res rationesque contractae.
Artior vero colligatio est societatis propinquorum; ab illa enim immensa societate humani generis in exiguum angustumque concluditur.
[54] Nam cum sit hoc natura commune animantium, ut habeant libidinem procreandi, prima societas in ipso coniugio est, proxima in liberis, deinde una domus, communia omnia; id autem est principium urbis et quasi seminarium rei publicae. Sequuntur fratrum coniunctiones, post consobrinorum sobrinorumque, qui cum una domo iam capi non possint, in alias domos tamquam in colonias exeunt. Sequuntur conubia et affinitates, ex quibus etiam plures propinqui; quae propagatio et suboles origo est rerum publicarum. Sanguinis autem coniunctio et benivolentia devincit homines et caritate;
[55] magnum est enim eadem habere monumenta maiorum, eisdem uti sacris, sepulcra habere communia.
Sed omnium societatum nulla praestantior est, nulla firmior, quam cum viri boni moribus similes sunt familiaritate coniuncti; illud enim honestum quod saepe dicimus, etiam si in alio cernimus, tamen nos movet atque illi, in quo id inesse videtur, amicos facit.
[56] Et quamquam omnis virtus nos ad se allicit facitque, ut eos diligamus, in quibus ipsa inesse videatur, tamen iustitia et liberalitas id maxime efficit. Nihil autem est amabilius nec copulatius quam morum similitudo bonorum; in quibus enim eadem studia sunt, eaedem voluntates, in iis fit ut aeque quisque altero delectetur ac se ipso, efficiturque id, quod Pythagoras vult in amicitia, ut unus fiat ex pluribus.
Magna etiam illa communitas est, quae conficitur ex beneficiis ultro et citro datis acceptis, quae et mutua et grata dum sunt, inter quos ea sunt, firma devinciuntur societate.
[57] Sed cum omnia ratione animoque lustraris, omnium societatum nulla est gravior, nulla carior quam ea, quae cum re publica est uni cuique nostrum. Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiars, sed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa est, pro qua quis bonus dubitet mortem oppetere, si ei sit profuturus? Quo est detestabilior istorum immanitas, qui lacerarunt omni scelere patriam et in ea funditus delenda occupati et sunt et fuerunt.
[58] Sed si contentio quaedam et comparatio fiat, quibus plurimum tribuendum sit officii, principes sint patria et parentes, quorum beneficiis maximis obligati sumus,proximi liberi totaque domus, quae spectat in nos solos neque aliud ullum potest habere perfugium, deinceps bene convenientes propinqui, quibuscum communis etiam fortuna plerumque est.
Quam ob rem necessaria praesidia vitae debentur iis maxime, quos ante dixi, vita autem victusque communis, consilia, sermones, cohortationes, consolationes, interdum etiam obiurgationes in amicitiis vigent maxime, estque ea iucundissima amicitia, quam similitudo morum coniugavit.

All the above text is synthesized by Cicero himself in two words that express two feelings that usually turn all nationalisms in his De natura deorum 3.40, (94):

For God and country" or literally "for our altars and our hearths” or more idiomatically   "for hearth and home;"

Pro aris et focis.

The whole paragraph says:

So saying, Cotta ended. But Lucihus said :

" You have indeed made a slashing attack upon the most reverently and wisely constructed Stoic doctrine of the divine providence. But as evening is now approaching, you will assign us a day on which to make our answer to your views. For I have to fight against you on behalf of our altars and hearths, of the temples and shrines of the gods, and of the city-walls, which you as pontiffs declare to be sacred and are more careful to hedge the city round with religious ceremonies than even with fortifications ; and my conscience forbids me to abandon their cause so long as I yet can breathe." (Translated by H. Rackman. Loeb Classical Library)

Quae cum dixisset, Cotta finem. Lucilius autem “Vehementius” inquit “Cotta tu quidem invectus es in eam Stoicorum rationem quae de providentia deorum ab illis sanctissume et prudentissume constituta est. sed quoniam advesperascit, dabis nobis diem aliquem ut contra ista dicamus. est enim mihi tecum pro aris et focis certamen et pro deorum templis atque delubris proque urbis muris, quos vos pontifices sanctos esse dicitis diligentiusque urbem religione quam ipsis moenibus cingitis; quae deseri a me, dum quidem spirare potero, nefas iudico.”

The previous texts of Cicero are not the result of innovative thinking, but they are the  result of observation and application of basic common sense. This is certainly one of the reasons why the ancient are so near or next to us. Either they have shaped in part our thinking and our identity or the things were and are as they present threm very consistent with the common sense or common feel of men.

In the read text it appears that this sense of identity is what leads to say "I love my country not because it is big but because it is mine," which explains many of the social and political men behavior, in that it is not reason that is imposed but the sense of identity with the group.

Seneca  expressed brilliantly this idea. In a context in which he speaks of the value of virtue itself, regardless of the action that consists, he says in Epistles, 66.26:

Ulysses was in as great haste to reach the rocky barren shore of Ithaca, as Agamemnn was to reach the lofty walls of Mycenae. For, no one loves his country because it is more spacious than another, but because it is his own.  (Translation by Thomas Morell D.D.).

    Vlixes ad Ithacae suae saxa sic properat, quemadmodum Agamemnon ad Mycenarum nobiles muros. Nemo enim patriam quia magna est amat, sed quia sua.

In the long previous quote Cicero extolled even death for the benefit of the motherland. But undoubtedly the most quoted and known sentence  is that one of the Odes of Horace, 3,2,13:

"It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country."

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

Because this Oda, which  sings and extols the virtue, value or condition of the real man, vir, (that's what the word virtue, virtus, means) is not overly long, even at the risk of tiring to some readers less interested, I reproduce it fully in Latin and in translation by John Conington

To suffer hardness with good cheer,
In sternest school of warfare bred,
Our youth should learn; let steed and spear
Make him one day the Parthian's dread;
Cold skies, keen perils, brace his life.
Methinks I see from rampired town
Some battling tyrant's matron wife,
Some maiden, look in terror down,—
“Ah, my dear lord, untrain'd in war!
O tempt not the infuriate mood
Of that fell lion I see! from far
He plunges through a tide of blood!“
What joy, for fatherland to die!
Death's darts e'en flying feet o'ertake,
Nor spare a recreant chivalry,
A back that cowers, or loins that quake.
True Virtue never knows defeat:
Her robes she keeps unsullied still,
Nor takes, nor quits, her curule seat
To please a people's veering will.
True Virtue opens heaven to worth:
She makes the way she does not find:
The vulgar crowd, the humid earth,
Her soaring pinion leaves behind.
Seal'd lips have blessings sure to come:
Who drags Eleusis' rite today,
That man shall never share my home,
Or join my voyage: roofs give way
And boats are wreck'd: true men and thieves
Neglected Justice oft confounds:
Though Vengeance halt, she seldom leaves
The wretch whose flying steps she hounds.
(Translation by John Conington, 1882)

Angustam amice pauperiem pati
robustus acri militia puer
condiscat et Parthos ferocis
vexet eques metuendus hasta
vitamque sub divo et trepidis agat
in rebus. illum ex moenibus hosticis
matrona bellantis tyranni
prospiciens et adulta virgo
suspiret “eheu, ne rudis agminum
sponsus lacessat regius asperum
tactu leonem, quem cruenta
per medias rapit ira caedes.”
dulce et decorum est pro patria mori:
mors et fugacem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidoque tergo.
Virtus, repulsae nescia sordidae,
intaminatis fulget honoribus
nec sumit aut ponit securis
arbitrio popularis aurae.
Virtus, recludens inmeritis mori
caelum, negata temptat iter via
coetusque volgaris et udam
spernit humum fugiente penna.
est et fideli tuta silentio
merces: vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum
volgarit arcanae, sub isdem
sit trabibus fragilemque mecum
solvat phaselon; saepe Diespiter
neglectus incesto addidit integrum,
raro antecedentem scelestum
deseruit pede Poena claudo.

Cicero himself again, in one of the Philippicae, speeches he gave against the triumvirate Antony and he called "Philippics" in a clear attempt to  comparison with Demosthenes delivered speeches against Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander, who seized Greece.

(Note:  these speeches cost very expensive Cicero, but that is a matter for another time).

Well,  in his invectives, Philippics, 14,11, 31 Cicero says:

Oh happy death, which, due to nature, has been paid in the cause of one's country!

O forunata mors, quae natura debita, pro patria est potissimum reddita!

The debt to nature, which gives us life, is naturally death, debt until today nobody has defaulted.
I also offer a comprehensive text, which helps us to understand perhaps the warrior and patriotic mystique of this speech been in the Senate on April 21 of the year 43 BC, in which Cicero opposes lifting the "state of emergency" and claims honors for general and legionaries fighting against Marcus Antonius, enemy of the Republic; the rhetoric of these occasions is still today very similar, as the attentive reader will appreciate:

Cicero, Philippics, 14,11 (31) et seq.

And I wish more suggestions could occur to me in the way of doing honor to those men. The two ideas which principally do occur to me, I will at all events not pass over; the one of which has reference to the everlasting glory of those bravest of men; the other may tend to mitigate the sorrow and mourning of their relations.

I therefore give my vote, O conscript fathers, that the most honorable monument possible be erected to the soldiers of the Martial legion, and to those soldiers also who died fighting by their side. Great and incredible are the services done by this legion to the republic. This was the first legion to tear itself from the piratical band of Antonius; this was the legion which encamped at Alba; this was the legion that went over to Caesar; and it was in imitation of the conduct of this legion that the fourth legion has earned almost equal glory for its virtue. The fourth is victorious without having lost a man; some of the Martial legion fell in the very moment of victory. Oh happy death, which, due to nature, has been paid in the cause of one's country!  But I consider you men born for your country; you whose very name is derived from Mars, so that the same god who begot this city for the advantage of the nations, appears to have begotten you for the advantage of this city. Death in flight is infamous; in victory glorious. In truth, Mars himself seems to select all the bravest men from the battle array. Those impious men whom you slew, shall even in the shades below pay the penalty of their parricidal treason. But you, who have poured forth your latest breath in victory, have earned an abode and place among the pious. A brief life has been allotted to us by nature; but the memory of a well-spent life is imperishable. And if that memory were no longer than this life, who would be so senseless as to strive to attain even the highest praise and glory by the most enormous labors and dangers?

You then have fared most admirably, being the bravest of soldiers while you lived, and now the most holy of warriors, because it will be impossible for your virtue to be buried, either through the forgetfulness of the men of the present age, or the silence of posterity, since the senate and Roman people will have raised to you an imperishable monument, I may almost say with their own hands. Many armies at various times have been great and illustrious in the Punic, and Gallic, and Italian wars; but to none of them have honors been paid of the description which are now conferred on you. And I wish that we could pay you even greater honors, since we have received from you the greatest possible services. You it was who turned aside the furious. Antonius from this city; you it was who repelled him when endeavoring to return. There shall therefore be a vast monument erected with the most sumptuous work and an inscription engraved upon it as the everlasting witness of your godlike virtue And never shall the most grateful language of all who either see or hear of your monument cease to be heard And in this manner you, in exchange for your mortal condition of life, have attained immortality.  (Translated by C. D. Yonge, 1903)

11 (31) Quorum de honore utinam mihi plura in mentem venirent! Duo certe non praeteribo, quae maxime occurrunt, quorum alterum pertinet ad virorum fortissimorum gloriam sempiternam, alterum ad leniendum maerorem et luctum proximorum.
12. placet igitur mihi, patres conscripti, legionis Martiae militibus et eis qui una pugnantes occiderint monumentum fieri quam amplissimum. Magna atque incredibilia sunt in rem publicam huius merita legionis. haec se prima latrocinio abrupit Antoni; haec tenuit Albam; haec se ad Caesarem contulit; hanc imitata quarta legio parem virtutis gloriam consecuta est. quarta victrix desiderat neminem: ex Martia non nulli in ipsa victoria conciderunt. O fortunata mors quae naturae debita pro patria est potissimum reddita! [32] vos vero patriae natos iudico; quorum etiam nomen a Marte est, ut idem deus urbem hanc gentibus, vos huic urbi genuisse videatur. in fuga foeda mors est; in victoria gloriosa. etenim Mars ipse ex acie fortissimum quemque pignerari solet. illi igitur impii quos occidistis etiam ad inferos poenas parricidi luent; vos vero qui extremum spiritum in victoria effudistis piorum estis sedem et locum consecuti. brevis a natura vita nobis data est; at memoria bene redditae vitae sempiterna. quae si non esset longior quam haec vita, quis esset tam amens qui maximis laboribus et periculis ad summam laudem gloriamque contenderet? actum igitur praeclare vobiscum, [33] fortissimi, dum vixistis, nunc vero etiam sanctissimi milites, quod vestra virtus neque oblivione eorum qui nunc sunt nec reticentia posterorum sepulta esse poterit, cum vobis immortale monumentum suis paene manibus senatus populusque Romanus exstruxerit. multi saepe exercitus Punicis, Gallicis, Italicis bellis clari et magni fuerunt, nec tamen ullis tale genus honoris tributum est. atque utinam maiora possemus, quando quidem a vobis maxima accepimus! vos ab urbe furentem Antonium avertistis; vos redire molientem reppulistis. erit igitur exstructa moles opere magnifico incisaeque litterae, divinae virtutis testes sempiternae, numquamque de vobis eorum qui aut videbunt vestrum monumentum aut audient gratissimus sermo conticescet. ita pro mortali condicione vitae immortalitatem estis consecuti.

Undoubtedly one of the best known texts of patriotism until to give the  life for the homeland  is the famous epitaph of the Spartans at Thermopylae, who held the powerful Persian army  while they lived . The  film “300”, directed in 2007 by Zack Snyder, adaptation of the comic of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, has undoubtedly contributed to raising awareness the feat of Leonidas and his fellows among a varied public.

Cicero cites the famous epitaph in his Tusculans, 1,42,101:

" At Sparta, stranger, tell that here we lie
in loyal service to our fatherland."

Dic, hospes, Spartae, nos te hic vidisse iacentes/
dum sanctis patriae legibus obequimur.

Cicero praises those who face death with fortitude. In this context he recalls the action of Leonidas and the Spartans, with two terse sentences, which today are repeated, one  at the  epitaph, another one that of the struggle in the shadow of Persian darts:

Tusculan, 1,42,101:

But why name commanders and those in high station, when Cato^ writes that whole legions have often gone with alacrity to places whence they had no expectation of returning ? "With like greatness of soul the Lacedaemonians fell at Thermopylae, on whom Simonides wrote :

" At Sparta, stranger, tell that here we lie
In loyal service to our fatherland."

What does their leader Leonidas say ? " Go on,Lacedaemonians, with a brave soul. To-day, perchance, we shall sup in the underworld."

This was a brave race, while the laws of Lycurgus were in full force. One of them, when a Persian enemy in a boastful strain said, " Our darts and arrows will be so thick that you cannot see the sun," replied, " We shall fight all the better in the shade." (Translated by Andrew P. Peabody)

sed quid duces et principes nominem, cum legiones scribat Cato saepe alacris in eum locum profectas, unde redituras se non arbitrarentur? pari animo Lacedaemonii in Thermopylis occiderunt, in quos Simonides:
Dic, hospes, Spartae nos te hic vidisse iacentis,
Dum sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur.
quid ille dux Leonidas dicit? “pergite animo forti, Lacedaemonii, hodie apud inferos fortasse cenabimus.” fuit haec gens fortis, dum Lycurgi leges vigebant.  e quibus unus, cum Perses hostis in conloquio dixisset glorians: “solem prae iaculorum multitudine et sagittarum non videbitis”, “in umbra igitur” inquit “pugnabimus.”

That, according to Cicero, Cato says, reminds me of those documentaries about the last two world wars in which we see marching to the war battalions of unhappy young with a smile that we not know if unconscious or forced. So I imagine the Roman legions; after all the war it has not changed much beyond the destructive capacity of weapons.

But already in antiquity, as we do today, very people asked what is the homeland ?. The word obviously derives from Latin "pater, -tris" father; therefore it means "fatherland" and according to the Academy designates the native or adopted country to which the human being by legal, historical and emotional ties feels bound. The fatherland is thus the place or country where man was born and by extension the land which adopts you.

Well, many old men had to leave the area where they were born for several reasons. The Mediterranean was a space or open sea in which ships and citizens of many cities move. Some settled in distant places; for example traders, soldiers who "served the country" away from his people, adventurers or forced citizens by the need to look for where and how best life, convicted or forced into exile citizens … It is the same reality that has not stopped exist to this day, in which the movement and displacement of people is constant.

Well, these people questioned the concept of homeland, which in its original sense condemned them to be "stateless". At the same time, in the context of world open to all kinds of travelers, some thinkers became aware of the radical equality of all men. Two famous examples are Diogenes the Cynic and Socrates.

Diogenes Laertius tells us in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Book VI, 38, on the other Diogenes, of Sinope, the Cynic:

All the curses of tragedy, he used to say, had lighted upon him. At all events he was

A homeless exile, to his country dead. A wanderer who begs his daily bread
(translated by Robert Drew Hicks)

The word used is ἄπολις, a-polis, as homeless.

Diogenes certainly feel himself uprooted from the circumstances which  give particular identity to the men, no city, no home, away from home …; so it's no wonder the answer given to the frequently asked question: where are you from?

And so, in Book VI, 63:

Asked where he came from, he said, "I am a citizen of the world”

ἐρωτηθεὶς πόθεν εἴη, "κοσμοπολίτης," ἔφη
(erotezeís pózen eie, “kosmopolítes” éfe)

If this answer is authentic,  the famous term "cosmopolitan" was originated with Diogenes.

In a quote from Cicero that I offer below, also the Socrates, when asked which country was he from, he replied that he was "inhabitant of the world", "mundanum incolam".

But perhaps the best known and quoted phrase is that of Terence in his comedy Heautontimorumenos: Actus I, Escaena I, v. 77:

I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man do I deem a matter of indifference to me

Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto

that is often used to express the feeling of solidarity.

The Greek name Heautontimorumenos means “who torments himself” and refers to the feeling of a father who regret having been too severe with his son. This is a typical comedy with multiple entanglements complicated plot in which everything just right in the end, as is mandatory in this type of comedy.

I give a longer appointment to contextualize and see how little does the elementary and humorous meaning given by Terence with the transcendent meaning that is loaded later. It is cited as an expression of the "Humanitas" of Terence

I quote verses 75-86 (23-34)

(Cremes worries about excessive work which Menedemus makes  in his field) …

MENEDEMUS
Have you so much leisure, Chremes, from your own affairs, that you can attend to those of others-those which don't concern you?
CHREMES
I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man do I deem a matter of indifference to me. Suppose that I wish either to advise you in this matter, or to be informed myself: if what you do is right, that I may do the same; if it is not, then that I may dissuade you.
MENEDEMUS
It's requisite for me to do so; do you as it is necessary for you to do.
CHREMES
Is it requisite for any person to torment himself?
MENEDEMUS
It is for me.
CHREMES
If you have any affliction, I could wish it otherwise. But prithee, what sorrow is this of yours? How have you deserved so ill of yourself?
MENEDEMUS
Alas! alas! He begins to weep.
CHREMES
Do not weep, but make me acquainted with it, whatever it is. Do not be reserved; fear nothing; trust me, I tell you. Either by consolation, or by counsel, or by any means, I will aid you.
(Translatio  by Henry Thomas Riley, 1874)

Menaedemus.
Chreme, tantumne est ab re tua oti tibi
Aliena ut cures, eaque nihil quae ad te attinent?

Chremes.
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.
Vel me monere hoc, vel percontari puta.
Rectum est? ego ut faciam: non est? te ut deterream.

Menaedemus.
Mihi sic est usus: tibi ut opus facto est, face.

Chremes.
An cuiquam est usus homini se ut cruciet?

Menaedemus.
Mihi.

Chremes.
Si quid laboris est, nollem: sed quid istuc mali est,
Quaeso? quid de te tantum meruisti?

Menaedemus.
Eheu!

Chremes.
Ne lacrima: atque istuc quicquid est fac me ut sciam:
Ne retice: ne verere: crede, inquam, mihi,
Aut consolando, aut consilio, aut re iuvero.

The verse in question has been cited since antiquity:

Cicero did so in "On Duties, I, 30" (De Officiis) , I, 30, who says it is very difficult to worry about the problems of others as our own.

Also Seneca, Epistulae, 95, 53, repeats the verse that he said we have in our hearts and mouths to reinforce his idea that men are solidary   and they are made of the same material.

St. Augustine, Epistyulae, 155,4,14, who also says that  the theater burst into applause when the actor pronounced it  (ferunt etiam theatra tota, plena stultis indoctisque, aplausisse), but the news does not seem to be historical; otherwise the claim to universality of St. Augustine has nothing to do with the intention of Terence:

Let us therefore try with all our strength that also they reach him  those we love as ourselves, if we love God and we know to love ourselves. Because Christ, that is, the Truth, says that the whole law and the prophets are condensed into two commandments: Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as ourselves.

Here we understand next or neighbor, not the insider by the ties of blood, but by the community of reason in which we live associated all men. If money associates men, how much more  associates them this reason due to the nature that is common, not by business law, but by the law of birth? The splendor of truth is not hidden to clear minds. So comedian puts into the mouth of an old these words addressed to another  old man:

Have you so much leisure  from your own affairs, that you can attend to those of others-those which don't concern you?

And the other old responds:

I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man do I deem a matter of indifference to me.

It is said that this phrase was applauded in the theater, although it was crowded with foolish and ignorant men. In such a community of human souls so touches the natural affection of all, than a man, who did not feel close or neighbor of all, could not be found in the theatre.

4. 14. Ad illum ergo quanta opera possumus, etiam illi ut perveniant agamus, quos tamquam nosmetipsos diligimus, si nosmetipsos diligere, illum diligendo iam novimus. Christus namque, id est Veritas, dicit in his duobus praeceptis totam legem Prophetasque pendere, ut diligamus Deum ex toto corde, ex tota anima, ex tota mente, et diligamus proximos tamquam nosmetipsos . Proximus sane hoc loco, non sanguinis propinquitate, sed rationis societate pensandus est, in qua socii sunt omnes homines. Nam si pecuniae ratio socios facit, quanto magis ratio naturae, non negotiandi, sed nascendi lege communis! Hinc et ille comicus (sicut luculentis ingeniis non defit resplendentia veritatis), cum ab uno sene alteri seni dictum componeret:
Tantumne ab re tua est otii tibi,
Aliena ut cures ea, quae nihil ad te attinent?
responsum ab altero reddidit:
Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto .
Cui sententiae ferunt etiam theatra tota, plena stultis indoctisque, applausisse. Ita quippe omnium affectum naturaliter attigit societas humanorum animorum, ut nullus ibi hominum nisi cuiuslibet hominis proximum se esse sentiret.

Varro in one of the few fragments of his Menippean Dolium also wrote in:

Varro, Saturarum Menippearum reliquiae: Dolium aut seria:

  The world is the great house of the little man

Mundus domus est maxima homulli …

  while indicating the equality of men in their large home and their small individual entity expressed with "homulli", diminutive for "homo".

So they were finding more open and relevant answers  to the questions: what is my homeland? Where the country is ?, to reach the very  famous and repeated sentence:

Where it is well with me, there is my country

Ubi bene, ibi patria

It is a saying or Latin sentence, result from abbreviation of verse of tragedy “Teucer”, of Pacuvius, which Cicero quotes in Tusculans, 5,37,108.

Patria est ubicumque est bene (The motherland is anywhere where it is well) seems like a quotation from a verse of Pacuvius, from its tragedy Teucer, which tells the story of Teucer, son of Telamon and Hesione, sister of Priam, who after the fall of Troy wanted to return to their homeland Salamina, but was rejected by Telamon because he could not prevent the death of his brother Ajax. Looking for a place to settle he came to Cyprus and allied with the king of Sidon.

Then the phrase is found in many authors like Curtius, Ovid, Aulus Gellius etc.

Cicero, in this passage of his Tusculans questions refers to happiness of the wise, who disdains the seemingly important things that have little value and needs rather modest things. Disdained the honor, money, he refers to the punishment of exile, common in antiquity. But exile hardly differs from the permanent stay abroad; it differs only in that exile is accompanied by the shame of punishment. Then Cicero quotes Socrates, who answers  as he does frequently with a lapidary sentence and then cites numerous Greeks characters, who went abroad and never returned to their homeland.

It will be better read directly from Cicero, Tusculanae, V, 37,108:

In the last place, the case of those who refer the objects which they pursue in life to the standard of pleasure presents no difficulty, since wherever these objects can be supplied, they can live happily. Thus to every case Teucer's words are applicable :

' Where it is well with me, there is my country." 

When Socrates was asked to name his city, he said, " The world ; " for he regarded himself as an inhabitant and citizen of the whole world.

What shall we say of Titus Albucius ?  Did not he with the utmost equanimity pursue the study of philosophy in Athens ? to whom, nevertheless, this would not have happened, if he had obeyed the precepts of Epicurus and taken no interest in public affairs.

How much happier was Epicurus for living at home than Metrodorus  who also lived in Athens ? Was Plato happier than Xenocrates, or Polemon than Arcesilas ?  Then again, in what esteem should a city be held, from which good and wise men are driven ? Demaratus indeed, the father of our King Tarquin, because he could not bear the tyrant Cypselus, fled from Corinth to Tarquinii, established himself there, and had children born there. Was he foolish in preferring freedom in exile to slavery at home ? (Translated by Andrew P.Peabody)

[108] postremo ad omnis casus facillima ratio est eorum qui ad voluptatem ea referunt quae secuntur in vita, ut, quocumque haec loco suppeditetur, ibi beate queant vivere. itaque ad omnem rationem Teucri vox accommodari potest:
Patria est, ubicumque est bene.
Socrates quidem cum rogaretur, cuiatem se esse diceret, “mundanum” inquit; totius enim mundi se incolam et civem arbitrabatur. quid? T. Albucius  nonne animo aequissimo Athenis exul philosophabatur? cui tamen illud ipsum non accidisset, si in re p. quiescens Epicuri legibus paruisset.
[109] qui enim beatior Epicurus, quod in patria vivebat, quam, quod Athenis, Metrodorus? aut Plato Xenocratem vincebat aut Polemo Arcesilam, quo esset beatior? quanti vero ista civitas aestimanda est, ex qua boni sapientesque pelluntur? Damaratus quidem, Tarquinii nostri regis pater, tyrannum Cypselum quod ferre non poterat, fugit Tarquinios Corintho et ibi suas fortunas constituit ac liberos procreavit. num stulte anteposuit exilii libertatem domesticae servituti?

So according the quote of Cicero in which the origin of the phrase"ubi bene, ibi patria est",  is explained that, gave title to this article, also we found out that the incorruptible Socrates had already been presented himself as an inhabitant, as a world citizen, "mundanum incolam".
Incidentally, the term "mundanum", which uses Cicero, is the translation of the Greek kosmios, which coincides with the translation of the Greek term kosmos to  the Latin mundum. 

I will cite several other Latin expressions and sentences whose meaning is very similar, but now without fit them in broader appointments, which the curious reader can easily complete.

the whole world is a man’s birthplace (Statius,Thebais,8,320)
Omne homini natale solum

to the brave, every land is his homeland, like the sea  to fish.  Ovide, Fasti,I,493)
Omne solum forti patria est ut piscibus aequor:

Any land is an exile, but another country  (Séneca, De Remediis Fortunae, 8,1)
Nulla terra exsilium est, sed altera patria;

I am not born for one corner; the whole world is my native land. (Seneca, Epistolas 28,4)
Non sum uni angulo natus, patria mea totus hic mundus est

here our home, this our country (Virgil,Aeneida, 7,122)
Hic domus, haec patria est:

But of course, the vision of the country, limited to the land that is born and lives, also have some problems. Remember the phrase curiously cited by four Christian evangelists Lucas, 4.24; Matthew 13,57, Mark 6.14; John 4.44:

No one is considered a prophet in his hometown/homeland

Nemo propheta acceptus est in patria sua.

Even the country can be very unfair to their children, as it said the epitaph which Scipio Africanus wanted  to be recorded in his grave, according to Valerius Maximus, 5,3,2, who devotes a chapter to the ingratitude.

ungrateful country, you shall not have even my bones

Ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes.

Valerius Maximus spent to the ingratitude the full Chapter 3 of Book V of his work Memorable Deeds and Sayings; he says about Scipio in V,3.2b:

When it had not yet off the pain for what happened, there was another reason for regret: because after the African  the Old transformed to master of Carthage  the Roman people weakened and broken by the Punic Wars, a people almost lifeless and dying, the  citizens, for compensate with  injustices this heroic action, relegated him to a filthy village and uninhabited swamp.

But the African did not go to the grave without tell  the harshness of this voluntary exile, because he ordered on his tomb was written: What ungrateful country, you shall not have even my bones.  Is there anything more worthy than this vicissitude, something fairer  than their complaints, or more moderate than this revenge of yours? It refused to receive his  ashes the land that, precisely because of him, did not have been reduced to ashes.

This was the only revenge with which Scipio answered the ingratitude of Rome, but his revenge is even more painful,  by Hercules !, than the violent attitude of Coriolanus, who attacked the country with the weapons of terror, whereas Scipio he used only shame, because he refused to express any complaints –how strong and sincere they were his good feelings- while the death did not come.

Priore adhuc querella uibrante alia deinceps exurgit. Africanus superior non solum contusam et confractam belli Punici armis rem publicam, sed paene iam exsanguem atque morientem Karthaginis dominam reddidit. cuius clarissima opera iniuriis pensando ciues ignobilis eum ac desertae paludis accolam fecerunt. eiusque uoluntarii exilii acerbitatem non tacitus ad inferos tulit, sepulcro suo inscribi iubendo 'ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes'. quid ista aut necessitate indignius aut querella iustius aut ultione moderatius? cineres ei suos negauit, quam in cinerem conlabi passus non fuerat. igitur hanc unam Scipionis uindictam ingrati animi urbs Romana sensit, maiorem me hercule Coriolani uiolentia: ille enim patriam metu pulsauit, hic uerecundia. de qua [re] ne queri quidem++tanta uerae pietatis constantia++nisi post fata sustinuit.

In these cases, homeland more than a mother is a stepmother, according to the second meaning of the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.

Well, trivializing the transcendent tone of "ubi bene, ibi patria", we bring up the Spanish adage:
You are not from where you born, but from where you spent you life at

It is the same demystifying meaning as that of this curious souvenir or decorative plate with the figure of a bear whit this sentence:

Home is where your honey is

This I call "trivialization" of the item indicates how primal, quasi physiological,is  the concept of "homeland", although it was a lot of demagoguery with which it is used by interested nationalism.

I want to end this long article with a reference to the present time.

The movements of man on the whole earth are as old as man himself. For a thousand different reasons and following perhaps instinct of curiosity, many men have not always been in the place where they were born.

Today  migrations remain millionaire always looking for a better way of life, bene vivere, and probably never as today men have found so difficult to move from one country to another.

I will  refer to the professional exile or stay abroad of many scientific and professional and Spanish students forced to do their highly qualified work abroad. It forces me to do my stay for a few days, in this case voluntarily, with one of these exiles, highly qualified professional in Munich, the city founded about eight  hundred years ago by  Benedictine monks where the Bavarian Alps become plain.

Around here (and elsewhere in Europe, including Greece, Anatolia and northern Italy) they moved from the Iron Age, Celtic or Gaul tribes of Gauls, the "Boii", who gave the name to the "Bavarian" region. Julius Cesar documents his last move from the Danube. They ended subsumed and integrated into other peoples.

Well, at Munich, like at many other German cities, they have reached hundreds of academically well-trained young Spaniards. The better educated Spanish generation that a neoliberal and conservative minister described as nothing short of "adventurers". How ironic that an unpresentable Minister, precisely of work, she classified this national disgrace and tried to camouflage it as an opportunity for some young people to whom she should offer better future!
She called this massive outflow of young professional "external mobility" to seek job and training opportunities with a euphemism that produces shame.

One of these young people is precisely my son and that will not let me be indifferent.

Naturally, scientists have to move in the global village, but because scientists or personal interests, but not because absolute obligation to find a job commensurate with their homework because there is not at home, in his first country, which formed them.

Perhaps the reflection of the old men helps them   to better withstand the distance: ubi bene, ibi patria.

Perhaps also it helps them to know the attitude of scholars and intellectuals of Humanism and of the Renaissance, as Ghiberti says in Secondo comment, chap. XV (Vasari, ed.Lemonier I,pagXXIX):

Only someone who has learned everything is not strange  in any part; although he is deprived of his fortune, even if he is  without friends, in any city where he lives  and can wait without fear the vicissitudes of fate, he will always be a citizen. "

And Codro Urceo, exiled, in his Vita above his Opera:

Wherever the wise established its headquarters, there he will find his homeland.

It was that a time of curiosity and intellectual refinement, in which new worlds and new horizons were discovered. This is now a time of many failures and disappointments in which everything, absolutely everything, is reduced to the economic benefit of the minority.