Million Dead - The Rise and Fall lyrics

They came from the East
They brought horses to our cultivated lands
They gave power to our have nots
They took our culture
They brought new customs to
Our burial grounds
Broadened the bases of our history
They came from the East
Replaced our despots with their Caliphates
Conquered but tolerated our gods
They brought us wisdom
They brought a zero to our tired calculations
They guarded knowledge we'd forgotten
They came from the East
Byzantium (a city of moths)
Crumbled into a dust that plunged
Europe into the dark
Constantinople (a metropolis of candles)
Brought light to our books as
Europe forgot how to read
Let's make this stage our Rubicon
Let's cast a die let's let history decide
And as I cross it
I chase Aeneas back to his ships
I bring the rhythm back to the hips
And as Rome is consumed
As I fiddle this whisper
Tune on these strings, friends
I have no need of your ears
So let's make this stage our Rubicon
Our frozen Rhine
Our yippie picket line, and I Caesar Hoffmann
And as I cross it
I bring the Central Asian steppe sweeping
Into the wilds of Europe
I make my bedroom Rome
I make this city my home
I am Remus come from the dead
Come to tell you all to
Sack this city tonight
Let's sack this city tonight
Because I always heard better in the dark
Thus immersed in barbarous longing