Guest
You can buy this song and more of my music here: Music and vocals by Farya Faraji, lyrics taken from the RMRS repertoire of marching songs; the RMRS are a reenactment group specialising in Ancient Roman military reconstructions and drills. Please note that this isn’t reconstructed ancient Roman music, it’s a modern piece with an ancient theme. With this song, I wanted to use only ancient Roman instruments and no modern orchestral ones, hence we only have drums, a lyre and an aulos, the last one is the bagpipe-like instrument that can also sound similar to a duduk depending on the model and playing style. The melody employs the Phrygian and Dorian modes of Ancient Greek and Roman music. I used Classical Pronunciation for the pronunciation, which is the reconstructed historical pronunciation of urban Rome circa the 1st century B.C up until the 3rd century A.D; it involves, among other elements, a retracted “s” like the Greek or European Spanish “s” sound, “v” is a “w” sound, the “m” endings like “um” and “em” are nasalised to the point where the “m” can almost sound silent, the “ae” cluster is a diphthong, and the “c” letter is a hard “k” sound. Note however that the melody does not take into account the phonemic vowel length, which was fundamental to the language, and it also ignores the stress accent. The Legio XIV Gemina, or Twinned Fourtheenth Legion, was formed by Julius Caesar in 57 B.C, in Cisalpine Gaul. The “twinned” part of the name refers to the fact that it was merged with another legion after the Battle of Actium. It partook in the Gallic Wars under Julius Caesar as well as the war in Britain where they faced Boudicca, and many more wars for the next centuries, existing up until the end of the Western Roman Empire, as late as the 5th century. Lyrics in Latin: Sumus Quartadecumani Legio Gemina, Aufer te! De via decedite! Cornu sonat pedem inferre, Milites romani, procedite! Nostra superbia est in legione Et pugnans peditatus est domus gensque. Nos signa sequimur, quocumque nos ducunt, A barbara Germaniae silva, Ad Caledoniam caliginem, Domitores Britannorum procedite. English translation: We are men of the Fourteenth, Legion of the Twin Away with you! Get out of our way! The trumpet sounds advance, Soldiers of Rome, forward! Our Pride is in the Legion, And the fighting infantry are our family and home, From the barbarous forests of Germany, To the mist shrouded hills of Caledonia, Tamers of Britain, March!
