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