DERIDET CVRAS ANXIA VITA NIHIL.
We are deceived by our vows, misled by time, and death derides our cares; anxious life is naught.
Of similar character is the following recalling the complaint of Job, “He cometh forth as a flower and is cut down:” VIVE LAETVS QVICVNQVE VIVIS VITA PARVVM MVNVS EST MOX EXORTA EST SENSIM VIGESCIT DEINDE SENSIM DEFICIT—“Live joyful who ever thou art that livest. Life is a small gift. It is scarcely sprung up when it imperceptibly flourishes and then imperceptibly declines.” The succeeding example is remarkable for its misanthropy: ANIMAL INGRATIVS HOMINE NVLLVM EST—“No animal is more ungrateful than man.” The inspired apothegm, “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out,” is illustrated in the following: EX OMNIBVS BONIS SVIS HOC SIBI SVMPSERVNT—“Of all their wealth they possess only this
tomb.” We find also the expression, MATER GENVIT ME MATER RECIPIT—“Mother (earth) nourished me, she receives me again,” analogous to the declaration of Scripture, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Spon gives also the following example: VIXI VT VIVIS MORIERIS VT SVM MORTVVS—“I have lived as thou livest, thou shalt die as I have died.” Sometimes the cold consolation is offered that others are also the subjects of sorrow and death, as DOLOR TALIS NON TIBI CONTIGIT VNI—“Such grief affects not thee alone;” NEC TIBI NEC NOBIS AETERNVM VIVERE CESSIT—“Neither to you nor to us was it granted to live forever.” Similar to this is a Christian inscription, ΕΥΨΥΧΕΙ ϹΕΚΟΥΝΔΕ ΟΥΔΕΙϹ ΑΘΑΝΟΤΟϹ—“Be of good cheer, Secundus; no one is immortal.”
More painful even than the gloomy stoicism of many pagan inscriptions is the light Epicurean tone which frequently occurs, as in the instance which follows, where life is compared to a play:
VIXI · DVM · VIXI · BENE · IAM · MEA
PERACTA · MOX · VESTRA · AGETVR
FABVLA · VALETE · ET · PLAVDITE ·
While I lived, I lived well. My play is now ended, soon yours will be. Farewell and applaud me.[716]
In the succeeding example the sentiment is still more Anacreontic. It breathes the true pagan spirit, Carpe diem—“Seize the day. Pluck each flower of pleasure as you pass. Press all life’s nectar into one frenzied draught and drain it to the dregs. Let us eat and drink,
for to-morrow we die.” Even in the solemn presence of death, the soul, unawed by the dread shadow of the future, turns regretfully to the vanished pleasures of earth, and finds its only consolation in the thought of their enjoyment.
D · M · TI : CLAVDI · SECVNDI
HIC · SECVM · HABET · OMNIA
BALNEA · VINVM · VENVS · CORRVMPVNT · CORPORA
NOSTRA · SED · VITAM · FACIVNT B · V · V ·