This article proposes that the unusual subject matter of Filarete’s relief in Vienna of Odysseus and Iros was inspired by Leon Battista Alberti’s dialogue, Profugiorum ad erumna libri III, in which the fight with the beggar Iros is one of the five incidents highlighted as exempla of Ulysses’ virtue. This connection allows the Stoic content of the relief to be examined. The article also explores Alberti’s particular relationship to Ulysses the Beggar as well as detailing the many aspects of the friendship between Alberti and Filarete.