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!

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