The psychology of patriotism, dying for one's own country There was an old Latin motto, "Dulce et decorum est, pro partria morii," which roughly translates into: "It is a sweet and beautiful thing to die for one's country." I used to think that this was a piece of misguided patriotism. 

That is, until the other night when a friend of mine said, "I would rather be a dead American than a live Ethiopian." (He was referring to the fact that the American standard of living is 100 times better than the Ethiopian.)

That got me to thinking, could the Roman proverb mean that Rome stood like a Colossus over her (Mediterranean world), so that a person would rationally choose death (or maybe take a 50-50 chance of death) as a Roman, than to be a live, and probably enslaved Carthaginian/Gaul/Greek/"pick your poison").  

Examining the notion of patriotism a little deeper.

Can the notion of being willing to die for one's country, be construed as a person's 
 desire to choose death under regime A over a chance to live under regime B, just because the disparity in standards of living was too great to bear?
The quote "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" is from one of Horace's Odes (III.2.13), and it translates as: "it is sweet and honorable to die for one's fatherland".

It is assumed that Horace did not glorify the death of a soldier in this poem but allude to the two predominant philosophical doctrines of his time, epicureism and stoa, and their perspective on the summum bonum, the greatest good. For epicureism this is lust ("sweet" in the quote), for the stoa it is virtue ("honorable").

From Horace's point of view, dying for your home country contradicts neither the epicureic nor the stoic ideal, as it implies both. Both philosophical doctrines were sceptical of a service to the state, and Horace says that serving your country is in tune with both doctrines.

Death for your country is glorified in a quote from Horace's Greek source, a verse by Tyrtaios  (Fragment 6D) about the service of the Spartans:

"The most beautiful death of all is when a warrior fights for his fatherland and dies for it."



Source:

Common internet knowledge ;-)