So, let us drink to the health of the homeland." Ergo, bibamus pro salute patriae." A reasonable English translation would be: "It is sweet and fitting to die for the homeland, but sweeter still to live for the homeland, and sweetest yet to drink for the homeland. Ī humorous elaboration of the original line was used as a toast in the 19th century: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, sed dulcius pro patria vivere, et dulcissimum pro patria bibere. Our youth should learn let steed and spearĪ back that cowers, or loins that quake. In John Conington's translation, the relevant passage reads: The poem from which the line comes, exhorts Roman citizens to develop martial prowess such that the enemies of Rome, in particular the Parthians, will be too terrified to resist the Romans. Before 1920, the phrase had tended to appear in memorials and monuments to the fallen after 1921, it tended to decry propaganda and war. Owen's poem, which calls Horace's line "the old Lie", essentially ended the line's straightforward uncritical use. Horace's line was quoted in the title of a poem by Wilfred Owen, " Dulce et Decorum est", published in 1921, describing soldiers' horrific experiences in World War I. The line translates: "It is sweet and proper to die for one's country." The Latin word patria (homeland), literally meaning the country of one's fathers (in Latin, patres) or ancestors, is the source of the French word for a country, patrie, and of the English word "patriot" (one who loves their country). The inscription reads: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori".ĭulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a line from the Odes (III.2.13) by the Roman lyric poet Horace. Detail of the inscription over the rear entrance to Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
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