Woad? About the ancient Welsh, Romans and Saxons. It should be in the database (see the Lyrics and Knowledge link at the top of the page). I think it was Adam McNaughtan who had a nice precis of the interaction of the Babylonian/Assyrian/Persian empires with their neighbours.

It's worth putting Rudyard Kipling into the search, he had some historical poems, some of which have been set to music.