Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
If you wish to support my work, please consider donating to my Patreon: patreon.com/FaryaFaraji
Music & vocals by Farya Faraji with aulos recordings and melodies by various Greco-Roman music specialists. Please note this isn't an attempt at a historically accurate reconstruction of Ancient Roman music, but a modern composition that implements parts of ancient Greco-Roman music theory and the sound of their instruments, the ones used here being the aulos, the askaulos, the pan flute, and the pandura.
The lyrics sung here are extracted from Horace's famous poem most often titled "Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori," which calls for Roman men to excel in the military arts to optimise Rome's military standing in the world. The melody was written so as to adhere as much as possible to the long vs short vowel of distinction of Latin and its subsequent stress rules.
Lyrics in Latin:
Angustam amīcē pauperiem patī
rōbustus ācrī mīlitiā puer
condiscat et Parthōs ferōcis
vexet eques metuendus hastā.
Dulce et decōrum'st prō patriā morī.
Dulce et decōrum est prō patriā morī:
mors et fugācem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidōve tergō.
Dulce et decōrum'st prō patriā morī.
Virtūs, repulsae nescia sordidae,
intāminātīs fulget honōribus
nec sūmit aut pōnit secūrīs
arbitriō populārīs aurae.
English translation:
Let a hardy lad learn well and happily,
through fierce training, to suffer constricting poverty
and let he, who must be feared, harry the fierce Parthians
on horseback with his spear.
It is sweet and proper to die for your country:
Death, too, pursues the runaway man
And does not spare the knees of a peaceful youth
nor a fearful back.
Courage, unaware of putrid defeat,
gleams with unblemished honours,
and neither takes nor places the axes
on the judgement of the common ear.
If you wish to support my work, please consider donating to my Patreon: patreon.com/FaryaFaraji
Music & vocals by Farya Faraji with aulos recordings and melodies by various Greco-Roman music specialists. Please note this isn't an attempt at a historically accurate reconstruction of Ancient Roman music, but a modern composition that implements parts of ancient Greco-Roman music theory and the sound of their instruments, the ones used here being the aulos, the askaulos, the pan flute, and the pandura.
The lyrics sung here are extracted from Horace's famous poem most often titled "Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori," which calls for Roman men to excel in the military arts to optimise Rome's military standing in the world. The melody was written so as to adhere as much as possible to the long vs short vowel of distinction of Latin and its subsequent stress rules.
Lyrics in Latin:
Angustam amīcē pauperiem patī
rōbustus ācrī mīlitiā puer
condiscat et Parthōs ferōcis
vexet eques metuendus hastā.
Dulce et decōrum'st prō patriā morī.
Dulce et decōrum est prō patriā morī:
mors et fugācem persequitur virum
nec parcit inbellis iuventae
poplitibus timidōve tergō.
Dulce et decōrum'st prō patriā morī.
Virtūs, repulsae nescia sordidae,
intāminātīs fulget honōribus
nec sūmit aut pōnit secūrīs
arbitriō populārīs aurae.
English translation:
Let a hardy lad learn well and happily,
through fierce training, to suffer constricting poverty
and let he, who must be feared, harry the fierce Parthians
on horseback with his spear.
It is sweet and proper to die for your country:
Death, too, pursues the runaway man
And does not spare the knees of a peaceful youth
nor a fearful back.
Courage, unaware of putrid defeat,
gleams with unblemished honours,
and neither takes nor places the axes
on the judgement of the common ear.
