Lays of Ancient Rome - Overview

Overview

The poems were composed by Lord Macaulay during his spare time whilst he was the "legal member" of the Governor-General of India's Supreme Council (1834–1838). He wrote about them:

"The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojorn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal."

The Roman ballads have short but learned introductions discussing the legends and justifying the poems as being like ballads that might have been sung in ancient Roman times.

The Lays were originally published by Longmans in 1842; they became immensely popular in Victorian times, and were a popular subject for recitation, a common pastime of the era. They were set reading in British public schools for more than a hundred years. Winston Churchill memorised them when at Harrow School, to show that, his academic performance notwithstanding, he was capable of certain mental prodigies.