Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Music & vocals by Farya Faraji, based on melodies recorded by Greco-Roman music specialists. Please note this isn't an attempt at a historically speculative reconstruction of Ancient Roman music, but modern music using Ancient Roman music theory and instruments with. For historically informed reconstructions, check out my playlists on Roman music and the videos without the "epic" tag attached in the title.
The lyrics of the song are historical, and are derived from an epitaph dedicated to Borysthenes the Alan, emperor Hadrian's beloved and favourite hunting horse. Given to Hadrian by Rasparaganus, king of the Roxolani in A.D 118, the horse was so beloved by the emperor that Hadrian placed an elaborate funerary monument in the animal's memory similarly to Alexander with his horse Bucephalus, containing this song's epitaph, which was transcribed by contemporaries, the poem believed to have been composed by Hadrian himself. "“Some light is thrown upon his passion for hunting by what he did for his steed Borysthenes, which was his favourite horse for the chase; when the animal died, he prepared a tomb for him, set up a slab and placed an inscription upon it.” Dio, 69, 10.2
The instrumentation consists of an ancient Roman pandoura, aulos, bagpipes, pan flute, and frame drums. The song is generally compatible with historically accurate reconstructions and our knowledge of Roman music, save for the Balkanic-like pedal note used underneath the monophonic structure of the song's melody, for which there is no attestation in Antiquity. The song's rhythm is in an odd time signature, which are attested in Ancient Greco-Roman music, and the sung melody adheres to Latin's long vs short vowel distinction, with the subsequent application of stress accent based on the penultimate stress rule. The pronunciation utilised is Classical Restored Latin.
Lyrics in Latin:
Borysthenes Alanus
Caesareus veredus
per aequor et paludes
et tumulos Etruscos
volare qui solebat –
Pannonicos in apros
nec ullus insequentem
dente aper albicanti
ausus fuit nocere –
vel extimam saliva
sparsit ab ore caudam
ut solet evenire
sed integer iuventa
inviolatus artus
die sua peremptus
hoc situs est in agro.
English translation:
Borysthenes the Alan,
the swift horse of Caesar,
who through the sea and the marshes
and the Etruscan mounds
Who was accustomed to fly,
while pursuing Pannonian boars,
him to harm with his white tooth
not one boar dared:
The saliva from his mouth
scattered even the meanest tail,
as it is custom to happen.
But in his youth, his healthy,
invulnerable body,
Killed on its day,
has been buried here in the field.
Music & vocals by Farya Faraji, based on melodies recorded by Greco-Roman music specialists. Please note this isn't an attempt at a historically speculative reconstruction of Ancient Roman music, but modern music using Ancient Roman music theory and instruments with. For historically informed reconstructions, check out my playlists on Roman music and the videos without the "epic" tag attached in the title.
The lyrics of the song are historical, and are derived from an epitaph dedicated to Borysthenes the Alan, emperor Hadrian's beloved and favourite hunting horse. Given to Hadrian by Rasparaganus, king of the Roxolani in A.D 118, the horse was so beloved by the emperor that Hadrian placed an elaborate funerary monument in the animal's memory similarly to Alexander with his horse Bucephalus, containing this song's epitaph, which was transcribed by contemporaries, the poem believed to have been composed by Hadrian himself. "“Some light is thrown upon his passion for hunting by what he did for his steed Borysthenes, which was his favourite horse for the chase; when the animal died, he prepared a tomb for him, set up a slab and placed an inscription upon it.” Dio, 69, 10.2
The instrumentation consists of an ancient Roman pandoura, aulos, bagpipes, pan flute, and frame drums. The song is generally compatible with historically accurate reconstructions and our knowledge of Roman music, save for the Balkanic-like pedal note used underneath the monophonic structure of the song's melody, for which there is no attestation in Antiquity. The song's rhythm is in an odd time signature, which are attested in Ancient Greco-Roman music, and the sung melody adheres to Latin's long vs short vowel distinction, with the subsequent application of stress accent based on the penultimate stress rule. The pronunciation utilised is Classical Restored Latin.
Lyrics in Latin:
Borysthenes Alanus
Caesareus veredus
per aequor et paludes
et tumulos Etruscos
volare qui solebat –
Pannonicos in apros
nec ullus insequentem
dente aper albicanti
ausus fuit nocere –
vel extimam saliva
sparsit ab ore caudam
ut solet evenire
sed integer iuventa
inviolatus artus
die sua peremptus
hoc situs est in agro.
English translation:
Borysthenes the Alan,
the swift horse of Caesar,
who through the sea and the marshes
and the Etruscan mounds
Who was accustomed to fly,
while pursuing Pannonian boars,
him to harm with his white tooth
not one boar dared:
The saliva from his mouth
scattered even the meanest tail,
as it is custom to happen.
But in his youth, his healthy,
invulnerable body,
Killed on its day,
has been buried here in the field.
