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