Lays of Ancient Rome

Lays of Ancient Rome
Thomas Babington MACAULAY (1800 - 1859)

Lays of Ancient Rome is a collection of narrative poems, or lays, by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Four of these recount heroic episodes from early Roman history with strong dramatic and tragic themes, giving the collection its name. Macaulay also included two poems inspired by recent history: Ivry (1824) and The Armada (1832).

In popular culture

Lays of Ancient Rome has been reprinted on numerous occasions, and is now in the public domain. An 1881 edition was lavishly illustrated by John Reinhard Weguelin. Countless schoolchildren have encountered the work as a means of introducing them to history, poetry, and the moral values of courage, self-sacrifice, and patriotism emphasized in Macaulay's text.

The phrase "how can man die better", from Horatius, was used by Benjamin Pogrund as the title of his biography of anti-apartheid activist Robert Sobukwe. The same portion of the poem was recited in an episode of Doctor Who, used as a plot device in the 2013 science fiction film Oblivion, and appears in the final book of Kevin J Anderson's The Saga of Seven Suns. Verses 32 and 50 of Horatius are used as epigraphs in Diane Duane's Star Trek novels, My Enemy, My Ally and The Empty Chair.

These words are on the epitaph at the Chushul war memorial at Rezang La in memory of the 13th Battalion, Kumaon Regiment of the Indian Army.

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC (25 October 1800 - 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer; his books on British history have been hailed as literary masterpieces.

Macaulay held political office as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848. He played a major role in introducing English and western concepts to education in India. He supported the replacement of Persian by English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction in all schools, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers.

In his view, Macaulay divided the world into civilised nations and barbarism, with Britain representing the high point of civilisation. In his Minute on Indian Education of February 1835, he asserted, ＂It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgement used at preparatory schools in England＂. He was wedded to the Idea of Progress, especially in terms of the liberal freedoms. He opposed radicalism while idealising historic British culture and traditions.