Hail to you Roma,
gentle and peace-loving Goddess
who delights in the songs of maidens
and the flowers that grow upon the seven hills.
You smile as you watch the triumphant general
parade through your streets
like Bacchus celebrating his Indian victory,
and nothing makes your heart gladder than hearing
the wise men dispense justice in the forum.
You march with the legions to put down the tyrannous foe,
and stay behind in foreign lands to nurture the civilizing spirit
so that all men in time may recognize their common brotherhood
and let go of their petty hatreds,
embracing what is best and noblest within the human condition.
You are the mother of the sciences and all the liberal arts,
your gifts to us are roads and aqueducts,
markets and forums, theaters and temples:
all the beautiful things that make for splendid cities.
And you teach us how to live well in them:
reverence for the ancestral customs,
obedience to the laws, love for freedom,
industriousness and endurance in the face of hardship.
Blessed is the man who is called after you a Roman –
for such a man knows truly what it is to be a man.
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To Roma
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