greece

Anglicised rendition of Graecia, a toponymic of the southern end of the Balcan peninsula. This was used as a collective name for the city states that thrived in and around the aforementioned peninsula. These city states shared a common language, a common religion and arguably a common origin, which led later researchers to clump them together under the aforementioned name. Greece only became a single nation under the rule of King Alexander the Great and his successors, and it finally succumbed to Rome. This name is currently used for a small, somewhat pretentious nation that occupies the southern end of the Balcan peninsula, whose citizens claim to be the heirs of the ancient greek civilization and display a certain continuum of language and traditions with the ancient civilization.