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!

Metre: Alcaic.

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