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