Iccius

• a Roman proper name, Cic. Phil. 3, 10. 26; Hor. C. 1, 29, 1.

1. A noble of Rheims in Gallia Belgica, who headed a deputation of his townsmen to Caesar in B. C. 57, placing their state at Caesar's disposal, and praying his aid against the other Belgic communities then in arms against Rome. Iccius defended Bibrax (Bièvre) against the other tribes of the Belgae immediately after his return from Caesar's quarters. (Caes. Gal. 2.3, 6.)

2. was appointed praetor of Sicily by M. Antony just before the departure of the latter for Cisalpine Gaul, in November, B. C. 44. (Cic. Phil. 3.10.)

3. A friend of Horace, who addressed to him an ode (Carm. 1.29), and an epistle (Ep. 1.12). The ode was written in B. C. 25, when Iccius was preparing to join Aelius Gallus [GALLUS, AELIUS] in his expedition to Arabia, and in it Horace dissuades Iccius from quitting security and philosophy for doubtful gains and certain hardships. The epistle was composed about ten years afterwards, when Iccius had become Vipsanius Agrippa's steward in Sicily, and had resumed his philosophical studies, without, however, acquiring the art of content. In both poems Horace reprehends pointedly, but delicately, in Iccius an inordinate desire for wealth. The immediate occasion of the epistle was to introduce Pompeius Grosphus [Grosphus] to Iccius. Iccius has been defended from the imputation of avarice by Jacobs (Rhein. Mus. 2.1, Verm. Sch. v. p. 1-30). [W.B.D]