From Antiquity to the late Middle Ages, the word ‘nation’ (natio) largely lacked positive political or emotional meaning. Compared to patria, it had to undergo an even profounder transformation in a much shorter period to become the main term and eponym of nationalism. This transformation started at the beginning of the fifteenth century and was completed by its end.

Natio is derived from nasci, which means ‘to be born’. Romans used the word to indicate their place or province of birth within the Roman Empire; one could be natione – that is ‘by birth’ – Sicilian, Macedonian or Dalmatian. The phrase was a regular component of the short biographical descriptions on tombstones. It rarely implied belonging to a community of the same name, whose members shared singular histories and habits. It was an individual designation of geographical origin in a mobile society, and it was mostly void of further political or cultural meaning.