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