Song of the Praetorians - Epic Roman Music

Music & vocals by Farya Faraji, lyrics by Demetrios Paraschos, with much help from my friend Luke of the Scorpio Martianus and polýMATHY channel. Please note that this isn't reconstructed ancient Roman music, only modern music with elements of Roman music and Roman instrumentation.

The Praetorians were the elite bodyguards of the Roman emperors, and were well known to be some of the greatest warriors of the empire too. Their role as bodyguards was often complicated by their participation in palace intrigues, and they sometimes killed the very man they were sworn to protect.

The lyrics use Classical Latin pronunciation; as much as possible, the melodically stressed vowel in a word is the one stressed in the language according to Latin's penultimate stress rule, and I tried to stick to long and short vowel length as much as possible: hence within a word, the long vowels are held longer or sung melismatically, compared to the short vowels. However, I sang a few long vowels not long enough whenever the music absolutely demanded it. The written lyrics on screen are written as the Romans would have written them: the "U" letter is represented by a "V" and instead of macrons, there are apices as the Romans themselves wrote, check out Luke's interesting video on the subject:    • Romans *did* write with macrons! Vide...  

The instrumentation uses an ancient Greco-Roman lyre, aulos, drums, and ancient cymbals. The melody is written using both the ancient Phrygian and Dorian modes of Greco-Roman music theory of Antiquity.

Latin lyrics:
Tibi fidēlitātem jūrāmus,
Sumus tuī humilēs servī,
Et vīta nostra tibi pertinet,

Hostēs tuī corruent,
Nam gladiī nostrī ac scūta validī sunt, Memineris, Imperātor,
Sumus tuum scūtum,

Tuās pugnās gerimus, tē victōriam efficimus,
Nōn est Imperātor sine nōbis,
Haec numquam oblivīscāris, ō Caesar,

Clāmās fortiter,
Nōlī oblivīscī qui tē in sōlium posuerit,
Memineris, vīta tua nōbis pertinet,

Jacē super pavīmentum marmoreum, Caesar,
Nōn amplius purpureum indue,
Et marmoreum candidum in rubrum convertistī

English translation:
We pledge loyalty to you,
We are your humble servants,
And our lives belong to you,

Your enemies, they flee,
For our swords are sharp, our shields strong,
Remember, Emperor,
We are your shield,

We fight your wars, we make you victorious,
There is no Emperor without us,
Never forget this, oh Caesar,

You speak loudly Caesar, you are arrogant,
Do not forget who placed you on the throne,
Remember, your life belongs to us,

Lie on the marble floor, Caesar,
You wear purple no longer,
And vou have turned the white marble red.