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!

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