The historical-patriotic sense found powerfully in Mazzini and Nietzsche, begins with the earliest European historical play; - a drama which also delineates the noble conception of Patriotism.I am talking of 'The Persians' by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus.It is instructive that Nietzsche begins his career by examining the Greek Drama, as in this seminal play, Greek civilisation itself is pitched in a life or death struggle - for its very survival - against an invasion from the East.Later Europeans, like Mazzini and Nietzsche are the heirs of this Greek sensibility.

I want to take a quote from that play by Aeschylus, with all its world-historical overtones, and then dissect it, cracking open each phrase so that it can burst forth and illuminate the beauty of Patriotism.
The quote in full is this;

"On, sons of the Greeks, fight for freedom of your fatherland, for the freedom of your sons, your wives, the shrines of your ancestral gods, and the tombs of your forefathers. All is now at stake".[Aeschylus,'Persians' 402-5]

Read this quote at least twice, my brethren, for it contains in it all we need to know about our Patriotism.We shall now play the philologist, and begin to read it well ...