Laudator Temporis Acti

Seneca, Oedipus 980-992 (tr. Frank Justus Miller):

By fate are we driven; yield ye to fate.
No anxious cares can
change the threads of its inevitable spindle.
Whate'er we mortals bear,
whate'er we do, comes from on high;
and Lachesis maintains the decrees of her distaff
which by no hand may be reversed.
All things move on in an appointed path,
and our first day fixed our last.
Those things God may not change
which speed on their way, close woven with their causes.
To each his established life goes on, unmovable by any prayer.

fatis agimur: cedite fatis.        980
non sollicitae possunt curae
mutare rati stamina fusi.
quicquid patimur mortale genus,
quicquid facimus venit ex alto,
servatque suae decreta colus        985
Lachesis nulla revoluta manu.
omnia secto tramite vadunt,
primusque dies dedit extremum.
non illa deo vertisse licet,
quae nexa suis currunt causis.        990
it cuique ratus prece non ulla
mobilis ordo.

986 nulla Leo: dura codd.