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. Some advice for Dellius
  2. Celebrating Neptune’s feast day
  3. A garland from the Muses
  4. Lovely mother, lovelier daughter
  5. Horace welcomes his army comrade
  6. Don’t trust Barine
  7. Horace, the wolf and the upright life
  8. Horace’s Cleopatra ode
  9. Soracte
  10. Horace’s first Ode
  11. Courage and decadence: the Regulus ode
  12. Jealousy
  13. A prayer to Venus
  14. Tibur or Tarentum: a poet’s dilemma?
  15. Gathering rosebuds: carpe diem
  16. Give me comfort, not riches
  17. Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar
  18. Pyrrha
  19. Horace rests from his labours
  20. Horace’s Chloe
  21. A change of mind
  22. What Roman youth should be
  23. Rome: disaster and salvation
  24. Diffugere nives
  25. The fleeting years slip by
  26. Horace’s wine
  27. Last love
  28. Stormy seas
  29. Carpe diem, Sestius
  30. Horace’s reverence to Bacchus
  31. Glycera
  32. Luxury versus the simple life
  33. Horace returns to lyric poetry
  34. Lydia’s tragedy
  35. The tug-of-war for Nearchus
  36. An invitation to Maecenas
  37. Horace the peacemaker
  38. The country is best
  39. The final ode
  40. Nereus prophesies the Trojan War
  41. Here’s to Murena!
  42. Horace’s monument
  43. Horace’s limitations
  44. O Fons Bandusiae
  45. Mourning for a good man
  46. Housman and Horace
  47. Awe for the Gods
  48. Pindar and Augustus
  49. Poscimur
    50. View Latin Poems
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