Muli Mariani

I once had a friend
The best of friends
Anyone could ever have:
We marched together long
With the sixth, legio Victrix:
We toiled hard like mules
Together 'neath the rain
Building Hadrian's great wall...
We drew swords together
In the ranks of the first Parthica
And shared a water-skin
In the burning deserts of Nisibis...
We were legionnaires
Under the Aquila of Rome -
We fought and died
Laughed and cast the die:
We, the muli mariani
A haggard band of brothers!
In Carnuntum, in 60 A.D
We were with the fourteenth
That owned the field that day
When Boudicca's braves
Faced a blood-swathed defeat!
We raised a right-arm hail
To Emperor Augustus
Inspecting the ranks
When we of the fifteenth Apollinaris
Made the Jews rue the day!
We were legionnaires
Under the Aquila of Rome -
We fought and died
Laughed and cast the die:
We, the muli mariani
A haggard band of brothers!