Laudator Temporis Acti

Silius Italicus 4.26-32 (tr. J.D. Duff):

Fear, an active taskmaster, speeds all the work; and terror is rife in the deserted fields. Men leave their homes; panic-stricken, they carry ailing mothers upon their shoulders and drag along old men whose span of life is almost ended; they drive their wives with dishevelled hair in front of them; behind them come the little children with shorter steps, clinging to their father's right hand and left. Thus the people flee, handing on their fear to one another; and no man asks the origin of the reports.

haud segnis cuncta magister
praecipitat timor, ac vastis trepidatur in agris.
deseruere larem; portant cervicibus aegras
attoniti matres ducentesque ultima fila
grandaevos rapuere senes; tum crine soluto
ante agitur coniux, dextra laevaque trahuntur        30
parvi, non aequo comitantes ordine, nati.
sic vulgus; traduntque metus, nec poscitur auctor.