The Carmen Saeculare (Latin for "Secular Hymn" - "Song of the Ages") is a hymn in Sapphic meter written by the Roman poet Horace. It was commissioned by the Roman emperor Augustus in 17 BC. The hymn was sung by a chorus of twenty-seven maidens and the same number of youths on the occasion of the Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games), which celebrated the end of one saeculum (typically 100 years in length) and the beginning of another. The mythological and religious song is in the form of a prayer addressed to Phoebus (Apollo) and Diana and represents a return to the tradition of glorifying the Roman Pantheon; it especially brings to prominence the patron god of Augustus, Apollo, to whom a new temple on the Palatine had recently been consecrated. A marble inscription recording the ceremony and the part played by Horace still survives. It is the earliest lyric poem about which we have definite information regarding the circumstances of its performance, and is the only one of Horace's we know for certain was performed orally.[1]