Laudator Temporis Acti

Melinno, Hymn to Rome (tr. Andrew Erskine):

Hail, Roma, daughter of Ares, warlike mistress with a girdle of gold, who has as a dwelling place on earth holy Olympus forever unshaken.

To you alone, most esteemed one, Fate has given the royal glory of everlasting rule so that you may govern with lordly might.

By your yoke with its strong straps the breasts of the earth and the grey sea are bound fast. With a sure hand you steer the cities of men.

Almighty time overturns everything and moulds life this way and that. It is only in your case that it does not change the favourable wind which maintains your rule.

Certainly, out of all people you alone bring forth the strongest men, great warriors as they are, just as if producing the crop of Demeter from the land.

χαῖρέ μοι, ῾Ρώμα, θυγάτηρ Ἄρηος,
χρυσεομίτρα δαΐφρων ἄνασσα,
σεμνὸν ἃ ναίεις ἐπὶ γᾶς ῎Ολυμπον
αἰὲν ἄθραυστον.

σοὶ μόνᾳ, πρέσβιστα, δέδωκε Μοῖρα        5
κῦδος ἀρρήκτω βασιλῇον ἀρχᾶς,
ὄφρα κοιρανῇον ἔχοισα κάρτος
ἀγεμονεύῃς.

σᾷ δ' ὐπὰ σδεύγλᾳ κρατερῶν λεπάδνων
στέρνα γαίας καὶ πολιᾶς θαλάσσας        10
σφίγγεται· σὺ δ' ἀσφαλέως κυβερνᾷς
ἄστεα λαῶν.

πάντα δὲ σφάλλων ὁ μέγιστος αἰὼν
καὶ μεταπλάσσων βίον ἄλλοτ' ἄλλως
σοὶ μόνᾳ πλησίστιον οὖρον ἀρχᾶς        15
οὐ μεταβάλλει.

ἦ γὰρ ἐκ πάντων σὺ μόνα κρατίστους
ἄνδρας αἰχματὰς μεγάλους λοχεύεις
εὔσταχυν Δάματρος ὅπως ἀνεῖσα
καρπὸν †ἀπ' ἀνδρῶν.        20

20 ἀπ' ἀγρῶν Bergk: ἄρουρα Bücheler

Another translation, by Matthew Dillon and Lynda Garland:

Hail, Roma, daughter of Ares,
Golden-crowned warrior queen
You who live on earth on holy Olympus,
For ever indestructible.

To you alone, most revered one, has Fate        5
Granted royal glory of unbreakable dominion,
So that, with your sovereign power,
You might lead the way.

Under your yoke of strong leather straps,
The chests of earth and grey sea        10
Are tightly bound together; with firm hand you govern
The cities of your peoples.

The longest eternity, which overthrows everything
And shapes the course of life first in this way, then in that,
For you alone does not change the wind        15
Which fills the sails of empire.

Indeed, out of all, you alone give birth to
Strong men, wielders of spears,
Sending forth a well-aiming crop of men
Like the fruits of Demeter.        20

Scholars differ about the hymn's literary worth. Contrast W.A. Oldfather, "Melinno," in RE XV/1 (1931) 521-523 (at 522):

Mir scheint es genau so gut als der grössere Teil von Horaz' Liedern, besonders Carmen Saeculare und die politischen Oden überhaupt, und der gewönliche Poeta Laureatus dürfte stolz auf eine ebenso gelungene Leistung sein.

with Hugh Lloyd-Jones and Peter Parsons, Supplementum Hellenisticum (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1983), p. 269:

nobis quidem turgidus iste stilus et inanium iterationum strepitus aetatem Hadriani sapere videntur.

See

• C.M. Bowra, "Melinno's Hymn to Rome," Journal of Roman Studies 47.1/2 (1957) 21-28, rpt. in his On Greek Margins (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), pp. 199-212
• Ronald Mellor, ΘΕΑ ΡΩΜΗ: The Worship of the Goddess Roma in the Greek World (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1975), pp. 121-124
• Carles Garriga, "Hegemonia i imperi a l'Himne a Roma de Melinnó," Ítaca. Quaderns Catalans de Cultura Clàssica 35-36 (2019-2020) 131-141
• Bartolo A. Natoli et al., edd., Ancient Women Writers of Greece and Rome (London: Routledge, 2022), pp. 193-200