The Imperial March!

[Sangue]

Hiya guys! Just joined the site. *waves*

On demand from reenactors I've met, here's my little tribute from Empire to Empire, translated from my original Norwegian version:


[size=200:1tqnnlox]Avant! Avant![/size]
P' CAL LIV SANGVE
To the tune of John Williams' "Imperial March" of Star Wars fame


Avant! Avant! Press forward for Rome!
Avant! Avant! For Empire and home!
Ere cold Death takes our final breath
We'll make Pluto offerings
Of those Jovi grace lets us face!
Mars, give skill so Minerva will
Bless gladly the line that brings
Each man to his place, pace by pace!

Avant! Avant! The proud cornum blares.
Avant! Avant! A fortress of spears.
Scutae tall form our Empire's wall.
Our hastae like towers make
The castra stand safe from attack.
Threatened, we'll draw our gladii.
The bold foe will surely break
As we march ahead on his back!

Dies irae! Our lightning unfurls!
Dies irae! Jove pater it hurls!
As we pray, thunder rolls our way
The Master of lightning knows
His Empire is here, everywhere!
Pilae's flight draw like rays of light
A message the wise of foes
Shall read bright and clear, and despair!

Dies irae! The gods pave our way!
Dies irae! The Empire's day!
From our hand gifts to every man
Of peace and enlightenment
We deal out while raising our arch.
Glorious strife is our love and life.
So blessèd are we that went
to march the Imperial March!

Øystein Bech Gadmar, 2005



Vale semper

[A_Volpe]

hey that's pretty good! thanks for sharing!

[Sangue]

Hmmm... a rather underwhelming response, all in all - Dudicus being the exceptional ray of sunshine. Too bad, really. It's such a nice song to bawl while marching up and down the square.

Oh well, guess a posting of my Mons Python Legionary Song isn't called for then...

[aitor iriarte]

Oh, please, dont' feel disgusted by that!
We're nice guys but we're currently too absorbed endlessly discussing on the colour of tunics or on if Roman soldiers were matches for the terrible Nubio-Gaulish horsearches... :wink:
Your song is a nice one, even without music!

Aitor

[Robert Vermaat]

Yes, music! Does it have a catchy tune?

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

perhaps "the imperial march" from Starwars is a good one!

[Tarbicus]

"Go West" by the Pet Shop Boys.

[Sangue]

Indeed, the last line should give a pretty good hint as Pelgrom savvied. And Tarbicvs, wash your mouth!

Our group do have an entirely different set of songs for more correctness-demanding occasions; this one is high-fun-factor-only. Not that I had much to go on when attempting to make Roman Army songs, but we felt we wanted to have something.

They're in Norwegian so I won't bother posting any of it here, but I think some of them are quite nice. "Come here little girl, want to see a Legionnaire?", "Hear now our Tuba", "March! March! Make the Road plain and straight" and "We're in the mongrel choir" are all hits among the local metal men whilst marching up and down the square with me.

[Arrian]

Just to help Øystein make it absolutely clear:
The text is written to the Star wars "imperial march" theme, and it sounds very good indeed. We should make a recording.

Though we should perhaps not publish our other texts;" Quintus the Signifer", "Men in skirts" or " You will have a seg tomorrow"( last one is a consolation song for those times when you are making a segmentata and everything just goes pear- shaped. It really does help to sing this when you have no shoulder(piece) to cry on.)

Does anybody have any other roman- ish songs they would like to share?
Or maybe there already is a thread? We need more songs!

Øystein, du bør definitivt legge ut Mons Python sangen.

[Praefectusclassis]

There used to be a thread with songs on old RAT. Trouble is, it's hard to find old threads with the search system, it seems.

[Sangue]

[size=200oyl60qg]The Mons Python Carminum Legionarii[/size]

Pythias:
I never wanted to do this job in the first place! I... I wanted to be... a Legionarius!

Subduing tribe after tribe, as they flow across the mighty Limes of Germania Superior:
The giant Gothii. The Ligurii. The Fir Bolgi! The mighty Scottish Pictii! The lofty flowering Celtii! The plucky little Assyrii! The limping Latrunculi of Numidia. The towering Woadii of Britannia Inferior! The Mauretanian Weeping Water Pirate! The naughty Langobardian Flashing Footman! The flatulent Aegyptii of Africa! The Quercus Maximus Bamber Gallicae! The Epigillus Sarmatius! The Bartus Colossus Verdans!

With my best buddy by my side, we'd sing! Sing! Sing! ...

I'm a legionnaire, and I'm okay.
I sleep all night and I fight all day.

Contubernium:
He's a legionnaire, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he fights all day.

Pythias:
I cut down foes. I eat my figs.
I go to the latrina.
On feast days I go shopping
And have pig tits Dulcia.

Contubernium:
He cuts down foes. He eats his figs.
He goes to the latrina.
On feast days he goes shopping
And has pig tits Dulcia.

He's a legionnaire, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he fights all day.

Pythias:
I cut down foes. I skip and jump.
I like to worship Mars.
I put on yellow tunics
And hang around in baths.

Contubernium:
He cuts down foes. He skips and jumps.
He likes to worship Mars.
He puts on yellow tunics
And hangs around in baths?!

He's a legionnaire, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he fights all day.

Pythias:
I cut down foes, wear Kothornoi,
Himation and Peplos.
I wish I'd been a Graecus,
Just like my Pater was.

Contubernium:
He cuts down foes, wears Cothurnae?!
Himation? And Peplos?!

- What's this? Wants to be a Greek?
- Oh, my!
- And I thought you were so rugged!
- Poofter!

He's a legionnaire, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he fights all day.
He's a legionnaire, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he fights all day.

Omnes:
Legionarius sum et bonus sum.
Age bellum et canta mecum!
Legionarius sum et bonus suuuum.
Age bellum et canta mecum!


(P.S.: Remember a proper Latin pronounciation on words like "dulcia" etc, or it won't even scan plus you'll seem like a despicable barbarian!)

[Robert Vermaat]

D D
Whahaaa!!
Not THAT is funny!!!

[Tasciavanous]

I love the Pyhon adaptation I laughed so hard I nealy did my self an injury! D D

So getting in the spirit of sharing songs heres one written by some of our group

The Revolting Britons!
(By A. Roman)

Original Tune “American Pie, by Don Maclean. Arrangement Tanners Jack. Apologies to Don Maclean and Weird Al Yankovic.

A long, long time ago
In a place not far away, our land was under an attack.
And me, my mates and half the tribe,
Thought that maybe we could bribe, those Romans into cutting us some slack.
But their response it didn’t thrill us, they drew their swords and tried to kill us
Taxmen in the doorway, they took our livestock away.
I can’t remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride
Something touched us deep inside
The day Presutagus died.

(Chorus)

And we were singin’

Bye, bye ancient British type guy,
Soon you’ll getta test your metal against those big shiny guys
Bring your wife and kids to watch those Roman dudes die
Now were off to join the Iceni, off to join the Iceni.

Did you know this great King’s heir,
Is statuesque with long red hair, but she can use a sword they say.
And if you believe that our new Queen,
Is a Roman-killing mean-machine, then come and follow Boudicca today.
Well I know the chariot’s for show, but I know how fast those horses go.
It’s time now to get real, so lets show them British steel.
Well on Colchester we will advance, and the people there won’t stand a chance,
We’ll lead them all a merry dance,
This day, the Romans die

(Chorus)

Now London was the next big scene,
We went down there behind our Queen, we were set to sink some beers.
On a tourist cart we had to roam,
We went to Greenwich to see the Dome, they’ll never build it in 2000 years!
And as the Lord Mayor’s show went by, with slings and javelins we let fly.
We were pissed it’s true, we got into a scrap or two.
Well we hit ‘em fast and we hit ‘em hard, we hit ‘em while they changed the guard,
And they knew we had marked their card,
The day, the Romans died

(Chorus)


With Britons 2 and Romans nil,
We marched down dale and over hill, the news of our success it flew.
Well Suetonius was in Anglesey,
He made killing Druids look easy, and decided that a hat-trick wouldn’t do.
“Those hooligans will have to dieâ€ÂÂ

[Sangue]

I have to say in a voice vociferous,
that your cantus and chorus choriferous
strike me as most brilliantly brilliferous!

[Sangue]

Odd - this topic is all twisted now, encoding-wise. Instead of special characters I see strange code. For instance, the Scandinavian O-slash letter (in my sig for instance) becomes an A tilde followed by another tilde.

Anyone else experiencing this, or is it only my problem clientside? *scratches helmet*

[Update: I edited the weird characters and reposted the songs. Fine now.]