Tribalism is one of history's great destroyers. Once racial, religious, ethnic, or clan ties trump all considerations of merit and loyalty to the larger commonwealth, then factionalism leads to violence, violence to chaos, and chaos to the end of the state itself.
The over 1,000 city-states of ancient Greece never developed a notion like that of the Roman natio, or nationhood. By contrast, many different peoples were bound by a common allegiance to Rome.
Pan-Hellenism—the idea that the city-states were united by a common language, locale, and religion—never quite trumped Greek tribalism. That factionalism is why foreign-imposed dynasties and empires eventually conquered the city-states
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