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