American Journal of Philology

It is commonly stated that, in his claim to have left his shield behind at Philippi (the so-called act of rhipsaspia), Horace has important Greek predecessors: Archilochus, Alcaeus, and Anacreon. The scanty evidence, however, does not justify the generalizations frequently made about shield abandonment as a literary tradition, and blanket assumptions limit our understanding of the texts involved. I here present the evidence for poetic rhipsaspia and explore the problems associated with its normal treatment in modern scholarship. I conclude with an appraisal of Horace’s use of this image in the context of Odes 2.7.