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Lays of Ancient Rome
A stirring teacher of Roman history, and of the virtues of courage, sacrifice, and determination.
- GenresPoetry
Paperback
Published January 1, 1997
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About the author
Thomas Babington Macaulay
2,749 books120 followersThomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay PC was an English poet, historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, and on British history. He also held political office as Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841 and Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848.
As a young man he composed the ballads Ivry and The Armada, which he later included as part of Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history which he composed in India and published in 1842.
During the 1840s he began work on his most famous work, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, publishing the first two volumes in 1848. At first, he had planned to bring his history down to the reign of George III. After publication of his first two volumes, his hope was to complete his work with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The third and fourth volumes, bringing the history to the Peace of Ryswick, were published in 1855. However, at his death in 1859, he was working on the fifth volume. This, bringing the History down to the death of William III, was prepared for publication by his sister, Lady Trevelyan, after his death.
As a young man he composed the ballads Ivry and The Armada, which he later included as part of Lays of Ancient Rome, a series of very popular ballads about heroic episodes in Roman history which he composed in India and published in 1842.
During the 1840s he began work on his most famous work, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, publishing the first two volumes in 1848. At first, he had planned to bring his history down to the reign of George III. After publication of his first two volumes, his hope was to complete his work with the death of Queen Anne in 1714. The third and fourth volumes, bringing the history to the Peace of Ryswick, were published in 1855. However, at his death in 1859, he was working on the fifth volume. This, bringing the History down to the death of William III, was prepared for publication by his sister, Lady Trevelyan, after his death.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 23, 2023
I bought my 1897 copy of Lord Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome" at David's bookstall in Cambridge's marketplace fifty years ago. It appealed to me because of its beautiful illustrations by J. R. Weguelin in the classical style. It travelled with me on my first journey to Ireland. I well remember the site director of the archaeological dig I was on teasing me that he was surprised I was reading such a raunchy book! The five lays it contains are on heroic themes beloved of schoolboys, and are written in an old-fashioned style, with rhymes and rhythms evoking memories of schooldays, learning poems by heart. Indeed my copy of "Horatius" has a tick against each verse, as if someone had marked them off one by one as they were committed to memory. A treasured volume which has been my companion for two thirds of my life, this book is still a pleasure to hold and to read.
June 21, 2020
Macaulay's 'Lays of Ancient Rome' are remarkable in several ways. The well-known 'Horatius' (aka 'Horatius at the Bridge') is glorious, memorable, stirring, heroic, in lovely rolling ballad-type stanzas:
Then up 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?"
Great stuff! But the second remarkable thing is how bad the rest of the material in the volume is. The poetry is uninteresting, and the pure heroism of 'Horatius' is replaced either gods winning the human battle, or by a girl being 'saved' from being despoiled by a tyrant by her father killing her when the three are together in the Forum, or by the poems deteriorating into blathery fragments.
He was wordy from an early age. The story is told of him that, uninterested in toys, he was reading avidly by the age of three, and he already talked like a book. When hot coffee was accidentally spilled on his legs and a kindly woman asked if he was all right, he replied, ‘Thank you, madam, the agony is abated.’
The third way in which this volume is remarkable is in the main Preface and in the shorter prefaces to each of the poems, especially 'Horatius'. Here Macaulay lectures in detail on a universal process of ballad creation in preliterate societies (and the value of verse for memorisation), their subsequent devaluation when higher standards of literacy come in, and finally their loss or partial recovery. He recounts the differences between two ballads of the Battle of Otterburn which have quie different outcomes for the protagonists, even though both ballads were probably written by people who were alive at the time of the battle.
And in a throw-away paragraph he inadvertently highlights the changes in education and culture that have taken place in the past 150 years: "The early history of Rome is indeed far more poetical than anything else in Latin literature. The loves of the Vestal and the God of War, the cradle laid among the reeds of Tiber, the fig-tree, the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin" (to these five he adds a further 23 examples, ending with) "the combat between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul, are among the many instances which will at once suggest themselves to every reader."
Well, that was then, this is now. But 'Horatius' itself has a timeless quality to it.
Then up 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?"
Great stuff! But the second remarkable thing is how bad the rest of the material in the volume is. The poetry is uninteresting, and the pure heroism of 'Horatius' is replaced either gods winning the human battle, or by a girl being 'saved' from being despoiled by a tyrant by her father killing her when the three are together in the Forum, or by the poems deteriorating into blathery fragments.
He was wordy from an early age. The story is told of him that, uninterested in toys, he was reading avidly by the age of three, and he already talked like a book. When hot coffee was accidentally spilled on his legs and a kindly woman asked if he was all right, he replied, ‘Thank you, madam, the agony is abated.’
The third way in which this volume is remarkable is in the main Preface and in the shorter prefaces to each of the poems, especially 'Horatius'. Here Macaulay lectures in detail on a universal process of ballad creation in preliterate societies (and the value of verse for memorisation), their subsequent devaluation when higher standards of literacy come in, and finally their loss or partial recovery. He recounts the differences between two ballads of the Battle of Otterburn which have quie different outcomes for the protagonists, even though both ballads were probably written by people who were alive at the time of the battle.
And in a throw-away paragraph he inadvertently highlights the changes in education and culture that have taken place in the past 150 years: "The early history of Rome is indeed far more poetical than anything else in Latin literature. The loves of the Vestal and the God of War, the cradle laid among the reeds of Tiber, the fig-tree, the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin" (to these five he adds a further 23 examples, ending with) "the combat between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul, are among the many instances which will at once suggest themselves to every reader."
Well, that was then, this is now. But 'Horatius' itself has a timeless quality to it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews