Odes 1.29

Iccius goes soldiering

by Horace

Horace is ribbing Iccius for dropping philosophy to seek his fortune as a soldier: how friendly the humour was meant to be isn’t possible to say. Both the reference to the girl’s late husband and the prettification of the boy to serve wine at a party carry some implication of sexual availability. Some modern readers might be tempted to read this poem as critical of militarism, conquest and slavery, but that would be a mistake. Here and generally, Horace takes them all as much for granted as other Romans of his time. The point is purely personal: you, a soldier, Iccius? Don’t make me laugh!

See the illustrated blog post here.

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Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides
gazis et acrem militiam paras
non ante devictis Sabaeae
regibus horribilique Medo

nectis catenas? quae tibi virginum
sponso necato barbara serviet,
puer quis ex aula capillis
ad cyathum statuetur unctis

doctus sagittas tendere Sericas
arcu paterno? quis neget arduis
pronos relabi posse rivos
montibus et Tiberim reverti,

cum tu coemptos undique nobilis
libros Panaeti Socraticam et domum
mutare loricis Hiberis,
pollicitus meliora, tendis?

Are you, Iccius, really now turning envious eyes on the treasures of Araby, getting ready for some hard soldiering, and already making fetters for frightful Persians and, once you’ve overthrown them, the Kings of the Yemen? What barbarian maiden will be your slave, when you’ve killed her husband, what well-born boy will be stationed by the ladle with his hair perfumed [to measure out wine for you], though he was trained for firing Eastern arrows from the bow of his fathers? Well, who can deny that tumbling rivers can flow back up high mountains and the Tiber can reverse its course, when you are seriously intending to swap the Socratic school, and the works of worthy Panaetius [the philosopher] that you bought up wherever you could find them, for Spanish armour – when you promised us something better?

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More Poems by Horace

  1. Horace rests from his labours
  2. Augustus, master of the world
  3. Diffugere nives
  4. O Fons Bandusiae
  5. Lovely mother, lovelier daughter
  6. The tug-of-war for Nearchus
  7. New temples, new morals
  8. Stormy seas
  9. Jupiter’s authority, and Caesar’s
  10. Last love
  11. A Prayer to the poetry-God
  12. Rome: disaster and salvation
  13. The consolations of wine
  14. Courage and decadence: the Regulus ode
  15. Horace welcomes his army comrade
  16. Horace’s limitations
  17. Horace’s monument
  18. Horace the peacemaker
  19. A change of mind
  20. The pleasures and dangers of wine
  21. Horace’s Cleopatra ode
  22. Tibur or Tarentum: a poet’s dilemma?
  23. Housman and Horace
  24. A plea for burial
  25. Gyges’s constancy
  26. Nereus prophesies the Trojan War
  27. Diana and Apollo: a hymn
  28. A prayer to Venus
  29. Relief from care
  30. Carpe diem, Sestius
  31. Fortuna
  32. Soracte
  33. Horace’s first Ode
  34. An oath to Maecenas
  35. Romulus in Heaven
  36. Unrequited love
  37. Pindar and Augustus
  38. Numida’s back
  39. Horace, the wolf and the upright life
  40. Don’t worry, be happy
  41. Gathering rosebuds: carpe diem
  42. Lydia’s tragedy
  43. Horace’s Chloe
  44. A prayer to Mercury
  45. What Roman youth should be
  46. Licymnia
  47. Give me comfort, not riches
  48. A garland from the Muses
  49. Horace’s wine
  50. Awe for the Gods
  51. An invitation to Maecenas
  52. Locked out
  53. Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar
  54. Poscimur
  55. Love a slave-girl? Oh, Xanthias!
  56. Pyrrha
  57. The country is best
  58. Glycera
  59. The final ode
  60. The Golden Mean
  61. Lalage is too young
  62. A Farewell to arms
  63. Don’t trust Barine
  64. Jealousy
  65. Here’s to Murena!
  66. Mourning for a good man
  67. Horace returns to lyric poetry
  68. Roman values for the new age
  69. Horace the swan
  70. Celebrating Neptune’s feast day
  71. Pollio’s histories of civil war
  72. Wealth should be used, not hoarded
  73. Horace’s reverence to Bacchus
  74. Postumus, the years slip by
  75. Curse you, tree!
  76. Luxury versus the simple life
  77. The fleeting years slip by
  78. Valgius and Mystes
  79. Romulus becomes a God
  80. Some advice for Dellius
    81. View Latin Poems
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