May 24, 2026
Dele Sobowale
“Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (Latin): Translation: “It is sweet and honourable to die for your country” – Horace, 65-8 B.C.
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in the modern day, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason” – Ernest Hemmingway, 1891-1961, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 267.
Latin was taught to us at Igbobi College until late 1960s. It was also taught in several mission schools, as well as King’s College and Government Colleges. Sooner or later, we stumbled on the famous quotation by Horace. It was very inspiring then. When the Roman writer, philosopher and satirist wrote those words in 23 B.C, the world was still relatively in its infancy. War was glamorized; and the greatest thing any young man could do was to fight for his country; and possibly, die for her. Fallen heroes were accorded a lot of honors and their orphans and widows were taken care of by the society their head of family defended with his life – at least for those married. By the beginning of the twentieth century, and especially, after the Second World War, armed conflict had become so common that Hemmingway and several others had started to question the validity of Horace’s assertion.
