Lays of Ancient Rome, 1881 edition ( ISBN 0898759366 )

The Lays of Ancient Rome is collection of ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history.

The poems were composed by Lord Macaulay during his spare time whilst he was the "legal member" of the of the Supreme Council governing India under the Viceroy (1834-1838). The Governor-General of India (or from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India) was the head of the British administration in India, and He wrote about them:

• "The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojorn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal"^[1]

The Lays were originally published by Longmans in 1842;they became immensely popular in Victorian times, and were a popular subject for recitation, a common pastime of the era. The Nilgiri (Tamil: நீலகிரி or literally Blue Mountains) often referred to as the Nilgiri Hills, are a range of mountains with at least 24 peaks above WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Ooty, short for Ootacamund (officially Udhagamandalam Tamil: உதகமண்டலம் The Bay of Bengal is a bay that forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities It was set reading in British public schools for more than a hundred years. Winston Churchill memorised them when at Harrow School, to show that, his academic performance not withstanding, he was capable of certain mental prodigies. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC, PC (Can ( 30 November 1874 ^[2]

The lead poem, Horatius, concerns Horatius Cocles's heroic defence of the bridge to Rome against the Tuscan Army. In the historical legends of Ancient Rome, Horatius Cocles, Latin for "Horatius the one-eyed" (Cocles itself a shortening of the Greek word 'Cyclops' Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 It contains the often-quoted lines:

Then out spake brave Horatius,
the Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods

The other poems in the collection are The Battle of Lake Regillus, Virginia, The Prophecy of Capys, Ivry: a Song of the Huguenots, and The Armada: a Fragment. The Battle of Lake Regillus was a legendary early Roman victory won over either the Etruscans or the Latin League.

See also

Horatius at Wikisource

External links

• The battle of Lake Regillus

References