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!