Laudator Temporis Acti

Archibald Y. Campbell, Horace: A New Interpretation (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1924), p. 5 (on Horace, Odes 3.17):

From the ancestry of Aelius Lamia to dry faggots and a sucking pig! What is the point? and where is the poetry? Not, why do people think it a good poem?—perhaps they don't; but why was it written even?

Horace, Odes 3.17 (tr. David Ferry):

Aelius, evidently you come down
From that old despot Lamus, or so they say
Who say that everyone having that name can claim
Descent from him who built the Formian walls

And ruled the delta of the river Liris,
Prince of the marshes sacred to Marica.
Tomorrow, unless the raven's wrong—cross old
Foreteller of bad weather—a storm is coming.

Branches will be down in all the groves,
Leaves scattered everywhere, and there will be
Seaweed detritus washed up on all the beaches.
Get firewood into the house to keep it dry.

Tomorrow, have a party with your slaves.
Give them a holiday, have a good time.
Serve up the unadulterated wine,
And a roasted suckling pig, not two months old.

The same, tr. "Junius Rusticus," in The Gentleman's Magazine (September 1793), p. 844:

Aelius, who back to Lamus trace
The distant honours of your race,
That reared his Formiae's tow'ring pride
To guard the vine-clad mountain's side,
Wide-swaying, where in angry mood
Liris oft sweeps Marica's wood—
To-morrow—or the Raven's croak
Deceives me from yon scathed oak—
Bred by the East-wind's blast, a storm
Nature's best beauties shall deform;
The sea shall swell, the billows roar,
And stranded weed upheap the shore,
While, howling deep, the grove shall mourn
Its verdant tresses rudely torn.
Be wise, my friend! and, while you may,
Pile up the fuel high to-day:
To-morrow let your slaves have rest,
And share the indulgence of a feast;
Kill the fat pig of two months old,
And the best wine your cellars hold
Draw freely forth, and feast your soul
With the full draught of Pleasure's bowl.

The Latin:

Aeli vetusto nobilis ab Lamo—
quando et priores hinc Lamias ferunt
  denominatos et nepotum
    per memores genus omne fastus,

auctore ab illo ducis originem,
qui Formiarum moenia dicitur
  princeps et innantem Maricae
    litoribus tenuisse Lirim

late tyrannus;—cras foliis nemus
multis et alga litus inutili
  demissa tempestas ab Euro
    sternet, aquae nisi fallit augur

annosa cornix. dum potes, aridum
compone lignum: cras Genium mero
  curabis et porco bimestri
    cum famulis operum solutis.