Pirates of the Mediterranean - Epic Roman Music

Music & vocals by Farya Faraji. Please note that this isn’t reconstructed Ancient Roman music, it’s entirely modern music with an ancient theme using Greco-Roman instruments of the period. Many thanks to my friend Luke Ranieri of the polýMATHY channel for helping transform my original lyrics into something gramatically coherent; keep in mind that the Latin is very basic at best and not representative at all of the poetic and semantical conventions of Classical literature of Antiquity. I was inspired by Pierre de Marbeuf’s French poem “Et la mer et l’amour” and the way it plays with the semantical and phonetical properties of the words love and sea in Romance languages. The pronunciation used is the Restored Classical Pronunciation, the historical pronunciation of the city of Rome from around 100 B.C to 200 A.D. The melody follows Latin’s long and short vowels as well as the stress accent; long syllables are sang longer and the stressed part of the word are melodically accentuated, with a few exceptions where I prioritised the melody.

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of piracy in the ancient Mediterannean, and I wanted to take a break from the usual militaristic themes of the Epic Roman series and move into other aspects of the culture, so I went this. Piracy in the Mediterannean is as old as the recorded history of the sea, and ranges from the Sea Peoples of the Bronze Age to the Cilician thalassocracy, to the pirates who captured Caesar, and onwards.

The instruments used are the Greco-Roman lyre, the aulos, pan flute, bagpipes, frame drums and tambourines, all utilised in the period.

Lyrics in Latin:
Mare, mare, mare…

Mare, mare,
Amāre tē, est mors certa,
Ah dēceptrīx!

Meminī tot nautās,
Fuisse amōrōsōs

Dein Sīrēn cantāvit,
Iam sepulcrum es,
Dēceptrīx!

Amāre mare’st amor,
Mōrōsus,
Quod amor marium amārum est,

Amāre mare’st amor,
Mōrōsus,
Quod mar’amat hominēs amārē!

Puella mea’st Marīa,
Plōrat mē adeunte maria,

Marīa puella mea’st, Jūdaeae,
Epona’st puella mea, Gallica

Rūfus meus cinaedus est,
Et Lunja’st puella mea, Libyca

Procellae, tempestātēs,
Spolia, praedae,
Sumus crassī*,

Quamquam mundus est lutārius,
Mundus sum, fīlius Neptūnius!

*A double meaning can be inferred here as the term can be translated both to plump/fat, or Crassuses as in the plural of Crassus, the richest man in the time of the Republic.

English translation:
Sea, sea, sea…

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

I remember, all those sailors who were amorous,
Then the Siren sang
Now you’re a sepulchre, deceiver!

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

Loving the sea is capricious love,
For the love of the sea is bitter,

Loving the sea is capricious love,
For the sea loves men bitterly!

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

Maria is my girl,
She weeps when I go to the seas,
Maria, she’s my Jewish girl,
Epona is my Gaulish girl,
Rufus is my catamite,
And Lunja is my Lybian girl,

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

Storms and tempests,
Spoils and plunder, we are plump!
Though the Earth is filthy,
I am clean, a son of Neptune!

[faryafaraji]

Music & vocals by Farya Faraji. Please note that this isn’t reconstructed Ancient Roman music, it’s entirely modern music with an ancient theme using Greco-Roman instruments of the period. Many thanks to my friend Luke Ranieri of the polýMATHY channel for helping transform my original lyrics into something gramatically coherent; keep in mind that the Latin is very basic at best and not representative at all of the poetic and semantical conventions of Classical literature of Antiquity. I was inspired by Pierre de Marbeuf’s French poem “Et la mer et l’amour” and the way it plays with the semantical and phonetical properties of the words love and sea in Romance languages. The pronunciation used is the Restored Classical Pronunciation, the historical pronunciation of the city of Rome from around 100 B.C to 200 A.D. The melody follows Latin’s long and short vowels as well as the stress accent; long syllables are sang longer and the stressed part of the word are melodically accentuated, with a few exceptions where I prioritised the melody.

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of piracy in the ancient Mediterannean, and I wanted to take a break from the usual militaristic themes of the Epic Roman series and move into other aspects of the culture, so I went this. Piracy in the Mediterannean is as old as the recorded history of the sea, and ranges from the Sea Peoples of the Bronze Age to the Cilician thalassocracy, to the pirates who captured Caesar, and onwards.

The instruments used are the Greco-Roman lyre, the aulos, pan flute, bagpipes, frame drums and tambourines, all utilised in the period.

Lyrics in Latin:
Mare, mare, mare…

Mare, mare,
Amāre tē, est mors certa,
Ah dēceptrīx!

Meminī tot nautās,
Fuisse amōrōsōs

Dein Sīrēn cantāvit,
Iam sepulcrum es,
Dēceptrīx!

Amāre mare’st amor,
Mōrōsus,
Quod amor marium amārum est,

Amāre mare’st amor,
Mōrōsus,
Quod mar’amat hominēs amārē!

Puella mea’st Marīa,
Plōrat mē adeunte maria,

Marīa puella mea’st, Jūdaeae,
Epona’st puella mea, Gallica

Rūfus meus cinaedus est,
Et Lunja’st puella mea, Libyca

Procellae, tempestātēs,
Spolia, praedae,
Sumus crassī*,

Quamquam mundus est lutārius,
Mundus sum, fīlius Neptūnius!

*A double meaning can be inferred here as the term can be translated both to plump/fat, or Crassuses as in the plural of Crassus, the richest man in the time of the Republic.

English translation:
Sea, sea, sea…

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

I remember, all those sailors who were amorous,
Then the Siren sang
Now you’re a sepulchre, deceiver!

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

Loving the sea is capricious love,
For the love of the sea is bitter,

Loving the sea is capricious love,
For the sea loves men bitterly!

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

Maria is my girl,
She weeps when I go to the seas,
Maria, she’s my Jewish girl,
Epona is my Gaulish girl,
Rufus is my catamite,
And Lunja is my Lybian girl,

Sea, sea,
Loving you is certain death,
Ah, deceiver!

Storms and tempests,
Spoils and plunder, we are plump!
Though the Earth is filthy,
I am clean, a son of Neptune!

[stegotyranno]

Dont you hate it when you are fighting the romans with your pirate mates when two Gauls on a small boat destroy your ship again?

[Regular_guy.]

Pirates: "were gonna ransom you for 20 talons of silver."

Caesar:"HA, MAKE IT 50!!"

[TetsuShima]

Julius Caesar's mother: "Sniff. My poor little Julius. Cannot imagine what unspeakable horrors he is going through now because of those dirty pirates..."
*Meanwhile*
Drunken Caesar and the Pirates: "MARE MARE MARE MARE..."

[mitopeppe]

For me, the Mediterranean is everything, it is my identity and this song truly catches it, greetings from southern Italy!

[bhnnad]

There is a Greek folk song called Itane Mia Fora (Once Upon a Time) about a young woman whose husband leaves to sail and he is killed by pirates. I think you would sing it beautifully!

[soumajitsen]

"Puella mea’st Marīa,
Plōrat mē adeunte maria"

I love what you did there! "Maria" refers to the sailor's girl and she weeps when the sailor goes to his other "maria", id est, the sea. And, I do think the basic Latin used in the song is probably accurate because I am pretty sure ancient pirates would not have had a scholarly education of Cicero and Vergil, so they probably sang in the same way. All in all, great music as always!

[ScorpioMartianus]

I loved every second of this. It’s playing on repeat. Super catchy, and knowing you wrote the lyrics, all with excellent Classical Latin pronunciation especially in the syllable length is so cool.

[ricardoroldan]

As someone with Spanish, Italian and Syrian ancestry growing up far from the sea the Mediterranean and everything related to it has a special place in my heart

[yllejord]

This is the recognisable feeling of a sailor towards the Sea, his Deadly Mistress, that's expressed in many songs and poems. I can see this as both a working song and something sung around the table in any seedy Mediterranean port drinking house.
Can't help but think of Nikos Kavadias' verses, the poet who's synonymous with ships and sailing for us Greeks.

[Radikal_knight]

As Iranian I love Roman history and Culture god bless you my Roman brothers 🇮🇷❤🇮🇹

[Bob-wnzd]

don't you hate it when your hostage comes back with a fleet and now you and your crew are being crucified?

[Djdjsnzidjixo]

The mediteranean is where my soul exist 💙🇸🇾
Lattakia, Syria 🇸🇾

[AurorainAurora]

I have a strong fascination with the sea, and I have longed for the Mediterranean Sea through historical tales from far away Japan. This song makes it even more exciting! Thank you for the wonderful song!

[SoulOfTheDesert]

Today i woke up with a fever, add this masterpiece to my medicines, instead of tormenting myself all day i will have the pleasure of listening to real music. Thanks Farya for everything you do! ❤️

[ImperatorOfficial]

The fact that when You released the song I was playing Rome 2 Total War and just won a naval battle with Rome just with artillery ships, crushing a fleet 4 times the size of mine is just crazy. Thank You for releasing this true anthem of victory!

[Nico_o]

as greek i love hearing roman music it haves something that bringing some scenes in my mind from my ancestors dying and having glory fight on roman side as Eastern Roman soldiers thanks farya for the songs

[johannesulmmann]

Dude, everytime I am about to have a test in Latin, you come out with a new Roman masterpiece. You make the studying a lot easier. Thank you, Farya :D

[caesar]

Was going to comment when it was released but was busy.

The latin is extremely smooth. It's extremely fun to see the improvements over time to your music.
For someone who's life deals with latin and greek its awsome to see someone create art like this.

[Leonismychild]

Farya. Your music is better than 90% of all modern music, it’s that good. I can’t get enough, i was already addicted to Toquz oyuz, Hikanatoi and The Achaemenids, and now you’ve just added this to my addictions.