Sons of Mars - Epic Roman Music

Composition and vocals by Farya Faraji. This song is just me having a bit of fun writing a Roman military march.

No deep historical value to this one--this is entirely a modern piece. I limited the instrumentation to trumpets, drums and a kithara, which the Romans had, although I added cymbals which aren't historically accurate. I used the Classical Latin pronunciation for the lyrics.

Lyrics:
Per aspera ad astra,
Per ardua ad astra,
Exurge Mars, Mars Ultor,
Roma et Imperator,

Viribus unitis,
Semper fidelis!
Sumus filii* Lupae capitolinae!

English translation:
Through hardships to the stars,
Through adversity to the stars,
Awake Mars, Mars the avenger,
For Rome and the Emperor*,

With forces united,
Forever loyal!
We are sons of the capitoline Wolf!

*This is the correct way to write the word, the one in the video is erroneous.

*I translated "Imperator" as "Emperor." Translating the word "imperator" is somewhat tricky—it didn't originally mean our definition of emperor, and was at first a military title. Generations into the era of the Empire, however, it had developped an almost exclusive association with the monarch of the state, which is why it took its modern meaning by the the time the Romance languages evolved out of Latin. I imagined this chant as being representative of Imperial soldiers, not Republican-era ones, which is why I translated it as "emperor." By the time we're deep into the Imperial era, soldiers would only mean the monarch of the state when saying "Imperator" with very few exceptions. For more info on the lyrics, check the bottom of my pinned comment in the comment section.

[faryafaraji]

NOTES ON THE PRONUNCIATION AND THE LYRICS:
Firstly please keep in mind that this is in NO WAY a historical piece from Ancient Rome or historically accurate Roman piece, it’s entirely modern.

Pronunciation:
1. For those believing that the "ae" cluster should be pronounced as "e", and that the "v" sound should not be pronounced as a "w, "—you're right insofar as Ecclesiastical Latin is concerned, but Ecclesiastical Latin is a medieval convention and is not representative of Latin pronunciation in Antiquity. The convention I'm using is Classical Latin—the reconstructed urban pronunciation of Latin in the city of Rome from around 100 B.C to 200 A.D.

Here is a video by Raffaelo Urbani, aka Metatron, the channel I've dedicated this song to, which describes both conventions:

I don't claim to be an academic linguist, but Urbani is, and his material on Latin is excellent.

Another video explaining the respective features of both conventions is Luke Ranieri's, a fluent speaker of Latin who does excellent educational videos on the subject which I highly recommend you check out:

2. For those aware of Classical Latin, and who know that the "ae" cluster in "lupae" and "capitolinae" should be a diphthong, I had to sing it as two separate syllables in order to follow the melody; it's the same logic as when in All Star, the singer says "I ain't the sharpest tool in the she-ed, " it's quite common in all languages to play around with phonetics to match the melody, and we have attestation of Ancient Romans breaking diphthongs into two-syllables for poetic effect, but keep in mind it's not representative of everyday spoken Latin. And no, the diphthong was not pronounced like the sound “eye” in English, this is a common misconception especially from English learners of Latin who are given the closest equivalent in English for convenience. The diphthong ended in a “a-eh” sound, not an “eye” one, you can refer to Polymathy’s video for this one.

However there is a lack of distinction between long and short vowels, which was central to Latin phonology, and the lack of distinction between the two betrays one of the most important aspects of the Latin language. Whether Roman singing did emphasise short and long vowel distinctions is not known to us, but it's very possible that their music took it into account since their poetry did, and it's something I haven't reflected in this piece, which damages the historical aspect of the pronunciation alot; I also didn't take into account stress accent, which wasn't fixed in Latin. Another valid criticism would be the "s" sounds, which are too high pitched for Classical Latin and not retracted enough (think of the S sound northern Spanish or Greek people produce, it's in between a SH and S sound, ) my microphone unfortunately reacts badly to retracted S sounds when I add reverberation to it and distorts the sound, so I'm forced to sing it as a high pitched S to preserve audio quality.

Concerning the lyrics:
Two commenters have kindly offered breakdowns of the lyrics which I'll summarise here.

"Exurge Mars, Mars Ultor, " is an imperative phrase in this case, where the singer is calling upon Mars and asking him to awake, and not asking someone else to awake Mars. In that case, it would be "Exurge Martem Ultorem."

"Roma et Imperator, " I translated as "for Rome and the Emperor." This is a very idiomatic translation that conveys the meaning poetically, not literally. In a literal sense, "Roma et Imperator" only means "Rome and the Emperor, " not "for Rome and the Emperor." The translation I provided is more poetic in the sense that an English soldier yelling "God and country" means "for God and Country" in an idiomatic fashion.

"Viribus unitis, " literally means "united strength, " more than "with forces united, " the latter again being a more idiomatic translation on my part.

"Semper fidelis" here is again very idiomatic. The "loyal" here doesn't describe the army as a "we", where in that case it would be "semper fideles." It can be seen more as an exclamation of loyalty from the entire army as one unit, or each soldier referring to himself.

A more literal translation would therefore be:
Through hardship to the stars,
To the stars through hardships,
Awake Mars the Avenger (this is a command directly addresses to Mars),
Rome and the Emperor,

Strength united,
Forever loyal (either the army is as a unit, forever loyal, or "I am forever loyal, " but this cannot mean "WE are forever loyal)

We are the sons of the Capitoline Wolf.

Many thanks again to Charles and Boris for commenting on the lyrics.

[thatweirdgreenparrot]

Play this song in your legion:
+100 discipline
+100 morale
+100 combat ability

[Roman_Imperator]

-dad, why did mom name my sister Rose?
-because your mother loves roses.
-thanks dad.
-no problem Sons of Mars - Epic Roman Music

[elihollingsworth]

*this music plays*
Random Germanic soldier: "what's that sound?!!!"
Rome: "civilization"

[danielk.]

Played this song to my dog. He is now the capitoline wolf.

[alexshlag]

Girls visiting Rome: "OMG it's so romantic!"

Boys visiting Rome:

[mitrahispana]

I played this song for my pet parakeet.

It is now a golden eagle.

[elcompagenito]

i played this song for my german friend, he’s now hiding in the forest.

[armandoromero]

When your wife ask you how many times do you think of the Roman Empire on a daily basis

[glthemusicenjoyer]

1st time listening: Hm this song is fine
2nd time listening: Damn Im beginning to like it
3rd time listening: PER ASPERA AD ASTRA!

[AldenHoffman]

Can you imagine hearing this if a Roman Legion was approaching?

From the hills, you can hear the thunderous footsteps of the Roman army, armor and shields clinking sharply. But above all that, the bellowing voices of thousands of soldiers, all of them proclaiming the power of the the legion.

I would sh*t myself.

[haneenzxcv]

Listening to this make me feel proud about being a son of Roman Empire. Even though I’m not.

[Atmovat]

-What kind of music do you like?
-It's complicated...

[WoW-wblf]

"Exurge mars mars ultor
Roma et imperator"
That line just gives me chills

[angbandsbane]

I played this for a parrot


He's still a parrot, but he speaks Latin now.

[cohortes_praetoriae]

OMG I can't believe what I just heard, it is possibly the most epic Latin song I have ever heard, the accompaniment of the instruments is perfect, just a pity that the lyrics are short. If you make another one in Latin that always speaks of Rome with a longer text it would be incredible. I just met you and you are incredible, I have already listened to a couple of your music and they are wonderful and in my opinion you deserve much more. Many greetings!

[Orwennian]

I am usually very skeptical about music which calls itself "epic", but it is truly epic.

[hyimgabry]

Played this to my dog, now she's breast feeding 2 newborns

[MrNackaerts]

Imagine having this soundtrack in Total War: Rome 2.😎

[prometheus]

By Jupiter we need more roman songs with vocals!