Translator’s note: We generally translate “patrie” as “country.” Here, however, we leave the term untranslated, for convenience’ sake and because of Jaucourt’s etymological discussion. It is useful to recall the connection between patrie and “patriotism,” a concept that was growing in importance in France and elsewhere at the time of writing, which was shortly after France’s disastrous experience in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) had concluded.

Patrie. The illogical orator, the geographer concerned only with the location of places, and the vulgar lexicographer all take patrie for the place of birth, wherever it is. But the philosopher knows that this word comes from the Latin pater , which represents a father and children, and consequently, that it expresses the sense we attach to the words family , society , free state , of which we are members and in which the laws assure our liberties and our happiness. There is no patrie under the yoke of despotism. [1] In the past century, Colbert also confused royaume [realm or kingdom] and patrie . Finally, a better-informed modern has brought forth an essay on this word, in which he has fixed with such taste and truthfulness the meaning of that term, its nature, and the idea we ought to have of it, that I would be wrong not to embellish—let us rather say fashion my article out of—the reflections of that witty writer. [2]

The Greeks and Romans knew nothing so lovable and so sacred as the patrie . They said that one owes oneself completely to her; that it is no more permissible to take revenge on her than on one’s father; that one’s friends must be her friends; that of all the omens, the best is to fight for her; that it is noble, that it is sweet to die preserving her; that heaven opens only for those who have served her. Thus spoke the magistrates, the warriors, and the people. What idea, then, did they form of the patrie ?

The patrie , they said, is a land which all the inhabitants have an interest in preserving, which no one wants to quit (because one doesn’t abandon one’s happiness), and in which strangers seek refuge. [3] She is a wet-nurse who gives her milk with as much pleasure as we receive it. She is a mother who cherishes all her children, who distinguishes among them only as much as they distinguish themselves; who readily accepts opulence and a middling condition but no poor; the great and the small, but no one oppressed; who even in this unequal division preserves a sort of equality, by opening to all the path to the leading positions; who suffers no evils in her family but those she cannot prevent, sickness and death; who, in giving existence to her children, would think she had done nothing if she had not added well-being. She is a power as ancient as society, founded on nature and order; a power superior to all the powers she establishes in her midst—archons, suffetes, ephors, consuls, or kings; [4] a power who subjects to her laws those who command in her name as well as those who obey. She is a divinity who accepts offerings only to spread them around, who demands more affection than fear, who smiles in doing good, and who sighs in unleashing a thunderbolt.

Such is the patrie ! The love one bears her leads to good mores, and good mores lead to love of the patrie . This love is the love of the laws and of the success of the state, a love singularly attached to democracies. [5] It is a political virtue, by which one renounces oneself in preferring the public interest to one’s own. It is a feeling and not a result of knowledge. The lowest man in the state can have this feeling as well as the leader of the republic.

The word patrie was one of the first words that children stammered among the Greeks and Romans. [6] It was the soul of conversation and the cry of war. It embellished poetry, it excited orators, it presided over the senate, it echoed in the theater and in the people’s assemblies; it was engraved on the monuments. Cicero found the word so tender that he preferred it to any other when he was speaking of the interests of Rome. [7]

Among the Greeks and Romans, there were also customs that constantly called to mind the image of the patrie along with the word: crowns, triumphs, statues, tombs, funeral orations—these were so many motives for patriotism. [8] There were also truly public spectacles, in which all the orders relaxed together; rostrums at which the patrie , through the mouths of the orators, consulted with her children on the means of making them happy and glorious. But let us detail the facts that will prove everything we have just said.

When the Greeks defeated the Persians at Salamis, [9] men heard on one side the voice of an imperious master driving slaves into combat, and on the other the word patrie inspiring free men. Thus, the Greeks held nothing more dear than love of the patrie ; to work for her was their happiness and their glory. Lycurgus, Solon, Miltiades, Themistocles, Aristides all preferred their patrie to everything else in the world. In a war council held by the republic, one of these men sees Eurybiades’ baton raised over him; he responds with just these three words: strike, but listen. [10] After disposing for a long time of the forces and finances of Athens, Aristides did not leave enough to cover his own burial. [11]

Spartan women had just as much desire to please as our own do, but they counted on hitting the target with greater certainty by combining their charms with zeal for the patrie . “Go, my son,” said one, “take arms to defend your patrie , and return only with your shield or on your shield—that is, victor or dead.” “Console yourself,” said another mother to one of her sons, “console yourself for the leg you lost; you will not take a single step that doesn’t remind you that you have defended the patrie .” [12] After the battle of Leuctra, [13] all the mothers of those who had died in combat congratulated themselves, whereas the others cried over their sons who came back defeated. They boasted of bringing men into the world, because even in the cradle they were showing them the patrie as their first mother.

Rome, which had received from the Greeks the image that should be formed of the patrie , engraved it very deeply into the hearts of her citizens. What was also distinctive about the Romans was that they mixed in some religious sentiments with their love for the patrie . That city founded under the most favorable auspices, that Romulus their king and their god, that capitol—eternal, like the city—and the city eternal like its founder, all this made an extraordinary impression on the Romans.

To preserve his patrie , Brutus had his sons beheaded, and that act will seem unnatural only to weak souls. [14] Without the death of the two traitors, Brutus’s patrie would have died in the cradle. Valerius Publicola had only to utter the word patrie to make the senate more popular; Menenius Agrippa, to bring the people back from the holy mountain into the bosom of the republic; Veturia—for the women in Rome, as in Sparta, were citizens—to disarm Coriolanus her son; Manlius, Camillus, Scipio, to defeat the enemies of the Roman name; the two Catos, to preserve the laws and the ancient mores; Cicero, to frighten Antony and to strike at Catiline. [15]

One might say that this word patrie contained a secret virtue, not only to make the most timid men valiant (according to Lucian’s phrase), but also to generate heroes of all types and to work all sorts of wonders. [16] Or better yet: let us say that in those Greek and Roman souls, there were virtues that made them sensitive to the value of the word. I am not talking about those petty virtues that bring us cheap praise in our private circles. I mean those civic qualities, that vigor of the soul that makes us do and endure great things for the public good. Fabius was mocked, scorned, and insulted by his colleague and by his army. No matter: he made no changes in his plans, he still temporized, and yet he ended up defeating Hannibal. [17] Regulus, to preserve an advantage for Rome, dissuaded them from an exchange of prisoners even though he was a prisoner himself, so he returned to Carthage where death by torture awaited him. Three Deciuses distinguished their consulate by devoting themselves to a certain death. [18] As long as we regard these generous citizens as illustrious fools and their deeds as theatrical virtues, we will not have much understanding of the word patrie .

Never, perhaps, has this noble word been heard with more respect, more

love, more advantage than in the time of Fabricius. Everyone knows what he said to Pyrrhus: “Keep your gold and your honors; as for us Romans, we are all rich, because the patrie demands only merit to raise us to the highest positions.” [19] But not everyone knows that a thousand other Romans would have said the same thing. This patriotic tone was the general tone in a city in which all social classes were virtuous. This is why Rome appeared to Pyrrhus’s ambassador Cyneas as a temple, and the senate as an assembly of kings. [20]

With a change in mores came a change in the reality. Toward the end of the republic, no one knew the word patrie any longer except to profane it. Catiline and his furious accomplices reserved death for whoever still pronounced the word as a Roman. Crassus and Caesar used it only to veil their ambition. And when this same Caesar later on said to his soldiers, in crossing the Rubicon, that he was going to avenge the injuries to the patrie , he was strangely misleading his troops. It was not in dining like Crassus, or building like Lucullus, or prostituting oneself in debauchery like Clodius, or pillaging provinces like Verres, or forming tyrannical plans like Caesar, or flattering Caesar like Antony that men learned to love the patrie . [21]

I know, however, that in the midst of this governmental and moral disorder, some Romans still yearned for the good of their patrie . Titus Labienus is a quite remarkable example of this. [22] Above the most seductive ambitions, friend of Caesar, companion and often instrument of his victories, he abandoned without hesitation a cause that fortune was protecting. Exposing himself to danger for love of the patrie , he embraced the party of Pompey, where he had everything to lose, and where even in success, he could only find very modest consideration.

But at last under Tiberius, Rome forgot all love of patrie , though how would she have preserved it? [23] We see brigandage allied with authority, manipulation and intrigue disposing of offices, all wealth in the hands of a few, excessive luxury mistreating extreme poverty, the farmer regarding his field as but a pretext for vexation, each citizen reduced to abandoning the general good to concern himself only with his own. All the principles of government → were corrupted, all the laws bent to the will of the sovereign. No more energy in the senate, no more security for individuals; senators who might have wanted to defend the public liberty would have been risking their own. It was nothing but a mute tyranny, carried out in the shadow of the laws, and woe to those who perceived this. To manifest one’s fears was to redouble them. Tiberius, asleep on his island of Capri, left things to Sejanus, and Sejanus, worthy minister of such a master, did everything necessary to snuff out all the love the Romans had had for their patrie . [24]

Nothing brings more glory to Trajan than having revived its remnants. [25] Six tyrants—equally cruel, almost all rabid, often imbecile—had preceded him on the throne. The reigns of Titus and Nerva were too short to establish the love of the patrie . Trajan intended to bring it about; let us see how he went about it.

While giving the praetorian prefect Saburanus the mark of this dignity (it was a sword [ épée ]), he began by saying: “receive this sword [ fer ], and use it to defend me if I govern my patrie well, or against me if I behave ill.” He was confident of his fate. [26] He refused the sums of money that new emperors were in the habit of receiving from the cities. He reduced taxes substantially and sold a portion of the imperial houses for the state’s benefit. He gave gifts to all poor citizens. He prevented the rich from enriching themselves to excess. And those he put in office—the quaestors, the praetors, the proconsuls—saw only one way to keep themselves there: namely, to concern themselves with the well-being of the people. He brought abundance, order, and justice back to the provinces and to Rome, where his palace was as open to the public as the temples—especially to those who came there to represent the interests of the patrie .

When the master of the world was seen to submit to the laws, to restore the senate’s splendor and authority, to do nothing except in concert with it, to regard the imperial dignity as but a simple magistracy accountable to the patrie ; when people in the final analysis saw the present good gain some credibility for the future—then, they no longer restrained themselves. [27] Women congratulated themselves for giving children to the patrie ; young people spoke only of making her illustrious; old men recovered their energy to serve her; everyone cried out: “fortunate patrie ! glorious emperor!” By acclamation, everyone gave to the best of princes a title that embraced all titles: father of his Country [ père de la patrie ]. But when new monsters took his place, the government → fell again into its excesses; soldiers sold the patrie and assassinated emperors to get a better price for it.

After these details, I do not need to prove that there cannot be a patrie in servile states. Thus, those who live under Oriental despotism, in which no other law is known but the sovereign’s will, no other maxims but adoration of his whims, no other principles of ← government → but terror, in which no fortune, no head is secure—those men, I say, have no patrie and do not even know the word, a word that is the true expression of happiness.

In the zeal that animates me, says abbé Coyer, I have in many places put subjects of all orders to the test. Citizens, I have said, know the patrie ! The common man has wept, the magistrate has knitted his brow while keeping a glum silence, the soldier has cursed, the courtier has made fun of me, the state budget official has asked me if this was the name of a new lease. As for the clergy who, like Anaxagoras, point to the sky with their fingertip when they are asked where is their patrie , it is not surprising that they do not celebrate it on this earth. [28]

A lord [29] as well known in letters as in diplomacy has written somewhere, perhaps with too much bitterness, that in his country, hospitality has changed into luxury, pleasure into debauchery, lords into courtiers, bourgeois into dandies. [30] If that is how it was, then soon—and what a shame! —love of patrie will no longer prevail there. Corrupt citizens are always ready to tear apart their country, or to excite disturbances and factions that are so contrary to the public good.

1. As Albert Soboul has pointed out, this idea was expressed by La Bruyère in his 1688 “Du souverain ou de la République,” in Characters . See Soboul, ed., Textes choisis de l’Encyclopédie, 2nd ed. (Paris: Editions Sociales, 1962), 178.

2. The reference is to abbé Gabriel-François Coyer (1707–82), “Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie” [Essay on the old word patrie ], in Dissertations pour être lues: la première sur le vieux mot de patrie, la seconde sur la nature du peuple [Essays to be read: the first on the old word patrie, the second on the nature of the people] (N.p., 1755), the first of which is reprinted in Edmond Dziembowski, Ecrits sur le patriotisme, l’esprit public et la propagande au milieu du XVIIIe siècle [Writings on patriotism, public spirit and propaganda in the middle of the 18th century] (La Rochelle: Rumeur des âges, 1997), 41–53. No English translation is available, but the essay can be found online in French in the second edition of Coyer’s Bagatelles morales et dissertations (London, 1757).

3. For this paragraph, see Coyer, « Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie ,  » in Dziembowski, Ecrits , 44–45.

4. The suffetes were elected officials in Carthage; the others were Greek or Roman officials and rulers.

5. For this paragraph, see Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws , 4.5. See also Democracy.

6. For most of this paragraph, see Coyer, « Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie ,  » in Dziembowski, Ecrits ,42.

7. For this sentence, see ibid., 43.

8. This paragraph draws on ibid., 48.

9. Ibid., 45.

10. The reference is to Eurybiades, a Spartan naval leader during the Persian wars, and to Themistocles (ca. 525–460 b.c.e.), his Athenian commander.

11. The other allusions in this paragraph are to Lycurgus (ca. 700–630 b.c.e.) and Solon (ca. 638–558 b.c.e.), lawgivers of Sparta and Athens, respectively; Miltiades (ca. 550–489 b.c.e.), adoptive Athenian leader in the successful Battle of Marathon against Persia in 490; and Aristides (530–468 b.c.e.), Athenian statesman and military leader. For this paragraph, see Coyer, « Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie ,  » in Dziembowski, Ecrits , 50.

12. Ibid., 49, 47–48.

13. Battle of Leuctra (371 b.c.e.), where the Spartans were defeated by the Boeotians.

14. See Coyer, « Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie ,  » in Dziembowski, Ecrits , 44.

15. Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42 b.c.e.), a Roman senator and an assassin of Caesar; Publius Valerius Poplicola (ca. 560–503 b.c.e.), thought to be instrumental in overthrowing the Tarquin monarchy and establishing the republic; Menenius Agrippa (consul in 503 b.c.e.), said to have persuaded the Plebs to return to work with a speech containing organic and patriotic imagery; Veturia’s appeal to Coriolanus to call off the war against the Volscians is traditionally dated 488 b.c.e.; Manlius Capitolinus, thought to have turned away the Gauls at the Capitol in 390 b.c.e.; Furius Camillus, consul, tribune, and leader of campaigns against tribal enemies in the 390s and 380s b.c.e.; Cornelius Scipio Africanus (235–183 b.c.e.), a commander in the Carthaginian wars.

16. For the next three paragraphs, see Coyer, « Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie ,  » in Dziembowski, Ecrits , 50–51.

17. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (ca. 275–203 b.c.e.), a Roman statesman and military leader known for his delaying strategy.

18. Marcus Atilius Regulus (d. ca. 250 b.c.e.), a naval commander in the First Punic War, was taken prisoner after his defeat at the Battle of Tunis; Publius Decius Mus was the name of a father, son, and grandson who served as political and military leaders in Rome in the late fourth and third centuries b.c.e.

19. Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, an early third century b.c.e. Roman political and military leader known for simplicity and incorruptibility; the story, though not the precise quotation, may be found in Plutarch’s “Life of Pyrrhus,” 20.1–3.

20. See Ibid., 19.4–5, for the apparent reference.

21. Marcus Licinius Crassus (ca. 115–53 b.c.e.), a general, political leader, and member of the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Caesar, known for his fabulous wealth and extravagant suppers; Publius Claudius Pulcher (ca. 92–ca. 52 b.c.e.), military and political leader and eventually nemesis of Cicero, known for his eccentric and plebeian conduct (hence his change of name to Clodius); Caius Verres (ca. 120–43 b.c.e.), a Roman magistrate and provincial governor, notoriously in Sicily; Lucius Licinius Lucullus (ca. 118–56 b.c.e.), a military and political leader, with political charges in Gaul and Cilicia, famous for retiring to a life of luxury and drinking bouts.

22. Titus Labienus (ca. 100–45 b.c.e.).

23. For this and the next three paragraphs, see Coyer, « Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie ,  » in Dziembowski, Ecrits , 45–48.

24. Tiberius Claudius Nero (42 b.c.e.–a.d. 37) and Lucius Aelius Sejanus (20 b.c.e.–a.d. 31), his feared lieutenant.

25. Dziembowski suggests that Trajan may have had special iconographical resonance in the public representations of the reigning monarch, Louis XV. See Dziembowski, Ecrits , 47 n. 1.

26. Dio Cassius, Roman History , LXVIII.16.1, for this story.

27. Dziembowski sees this passage as a way for Coyer, with subtly republicanizing inflections, to take the side of the provincial parlements (sovereign courts) in their struggle with monarchy over the scope of centralized royal power; see Dziembowski, Ecrits , 47 n. On the scope of royal power, see also the article Intendants.

28. Anaxagoras (ca. 500–428 b.c.e.), a pre-Socratic philosopher from Asia Minor who settled in Athens.

29. Jaucourt uses the English word here.

30. The reference is to Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751), Tory leader and author of Letters on the Spirit of Patriotism , among other works; a major presence in France during his years of exile during Walpole’s ministry and an influential friend of Voltaire and Montesquieu; see Coyer, « Dissertation sur le vieux mot de patrie ,  » in Dziembowski, Ecrits , 51–52, as well as the article Patriot.