Panhellenism

[Theodosius the Great]

Well.. yes, they did regret the fact that Greeks kept on weakening themselves through "civil" war and "using" (more like being used by) barbarians in order to promote their own individual interests... Never though does anyone even propose a political union... this would sound like science fiction to them.

One might think that upon reflection of the Greeks' misfortunes that some would be drawn to the conclusion that the Polis as an independent entity became obsolete in the new world of empires. I can see how a diehard democrat would be blinded by his archaic views but men like Polybius seemed to have questioned the institution and began examining the Roman oligarchy as a superior system of government.

If political unity was to be achieved I think it would have to have been done by monarchists or oligarchs in positions of power. Now that you mention the Epirotans, Pyrrhus almost achieved the political unity of the entire Balkan peninsula. He died as King of Epirus and Macedonia with a foothold in Italy. It's too bad he didn't live long enough to make a new marriage alliance to solidify the two kingdoms. In theory that is how any union would take place, marriage alliances. Although this didn't work in the Eastern Meditarranean - too many betrayals, wars, and deaths of would be dynasts undermined such efforts. So, since this was at least tried I can't see how a political union, especially in hindsight, would seem like science fiction to the Greek mind.

As for the 10,000... why should they inspire dreams of political unity? What they did inspire and prove, was that the Persians could be conquered by a strong Greek army. It is them that inspired Isocrates and with him Philip and Alexander but not just them. We see this comment many times expressed by Laconians and Athenians... Everyone seems to have entertained such thoughts after the exploits of the 10,000 and the subsequent campaigns of the Lacedaemonians in Ionia.

Well, the bulk of the survivors didn't break up which at least showed that Greeks could get along with each other even when the existential threat from Persia no longer compelled them to unite.

~Theo