Laudator Temporis Acti

Roman bridge and temple at Alcántara, Spain (photographs by Eric Thomson): Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum II 761 = Emil Hübner, ed., Inscriptiones Hispaniae Latinae, Vol. I (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1869), pp. 92-96 (text here adapted from https://db.edcs.eu/epigr/epi.php?s_sprache=en, search term litaturo):

Imp(eratori) Nervae Traiano Caesari Augusto Germanico Dacico sacrum

Templum in rupe Tagi superis et Caesare plenum,
    ars ubi materia vincitur ipsa sua,
quis quali dederit voto fortasse requiret
    cura viatorum, quos nova fama iuvat.
Ingentem vasta pontem qui mole peregit       5
    sacra litaturo fecit honore Lacer.
Qui pontem fecit Lacer et nova templa dicavit,
    scilicet et superis munera sola litan(t).
Pontem perpetui mansurum in saecula mundi
    fecit divina nobilis arte Lacer.       10
Idem Romuleis templum cum Caesare divis
    constituit felix utraque causa sacri.

C(aius) Iulius Lacer d(e) d(ecurionum) s(ententia) f(ecit) et dedicavit amico Curio Lacone Igeditano

7-12 post 4 transposuit Buecheler

The translation of the inscription at Wikipedia (Roman temple of Alcántara) is an incomprehensible mess:

To Emperor Nerva, Trajan, Caesar Augustus, Germanicus, Dacic, is enshrined

this temple, the live rock of the Tagus, occupied by the Divine and the Caesar,
art where Nature overcome itself.
Perhaps the curiosity of the travelers, whom the celebrity of the new it like,
inquire whom and under what vote, offered this temple.
Who built the great bridge of huge factory was Lacer,
to offer with great solemnity the sacrifices.
Who made the bridge, Lacer, also dedicated the new temples:
in that are met his votes, in this devote his offerings.
The illustrious Lacer, with divine art, made the bridge
to last forever in the ages of the perpetual world.
The same man set up the temple
devoted to the Roman gods along with Caesar, happy for each sacred construction.

Gaius Julius Lacer made this temple and dedicated it with his friend Curius Laco Igaeditanus (from the town of Idanha-a-Velha).

Screen capture of the Wikipedia translation (November 19, 2021): The translation by Edmund Thomas, Monumentality and the Roman Empire: Architecture in the Antonine Age (Oxford: OUP, 2007), p. 203, is somewhat more intelligible but still leaves a lot to be desired:

A temple on Tagus' cliff full of gods and Caesar,
    Where art itself is surpassed by its own material.
Interested travellers enjoying its new fame perhaps
    May ask who gave it and with what prayer.
The man who did the bridge, vast in great bulk,
    Lacer built the shrine with sanctifying honour.
A bridge to stay for ages in the eternal world,
    Was built by Lacer, ennobled by his divine art.
Lacer who made the bridge also dedicated new temples,
    (men have only gifts to offer even to the gods),
He also founded a temple to Roman gods including
    Caesar: fortunate in each cause of sacredness.

Here is a German translation by B. Keller:

Ein Tempel, voll mit Statuen der Götter und des Kaisers, auf der Schlucht des Tajo, wo die Kunst selbst durch ihr eigenes Material besiegt wird.

Wer mit welchem Gelübde <diesen Tempel> gestiftet hat, wird vielleicht das Interesse der Wanderer erfragen, die <diese> neue Berühmtheit erfreut:

Lacer, der die gewaltige Brücke mit riesigem Ausmaß vollendet hat, hat die Opfer dargebracht, wobei die Ehrung guten Ausgang versprechen sollte.

Lacer, der die Brücke errichtet hat, hat auch neue Tempel geweiht — natürlich versprechen auch diese den Göttern dargebrachten Geschenke allein einen guten Ausgang –,

Diese Brücke, die für alle Zeiten der ewig dauernden Welt Bestand haben wird, hat Lacer, berühmt durch seine göttliche Kunst, erbaut.

Derselbe hat auch den vergöttlichten Kaisern, den Abkömmlingen des Romulus, zusammen mit dem regierenden Kaiser einen Tempel errichtet. Beide Anlässe für das Opfer waren glückverheißend.

Hübner's commentary (op. cit., p. 96):

Apparet duplicem dedicationis causam sex distichis poetam ita persecutum esse, ut prioribus tribus ab altera parte positis illud fere dicatur, templum eundem fecisse, qui pontem, reliquis tribus illud pontem fecisse qui et templum fecerit; quod tautologia quidem est re vera, sed non aliena ab hoc argumento. In singulis poeta utitur sermone contorto interdum et subobscuro; nec tamen Scriverio obtemperandum censeo, qui epigrammata duo (v. 1—6. 7—12) hic coaluisse iudicavit. Nam sacello, non aliis operis partibus, totum epigramma destinatum esse e vv. 1–4 elucet; neque video, unde dedicatio praeposita orta sit, nec quibus in partibus varia epigrammata apposita fuisse apte conieceris, nec quomodo, si revera ita disposita fuerunt, iam in exemplis antiquis casu ita coalescere potuerint, ut unum efficerent epigramma meo quidem sensu bene cohaerens.

2 Hunc versum imitari Ovidianum illud notissimum 'materiam superabat opus' (metam. 2, 5) diu est quod observaverunt editores, ut Iohannes Alphonsus Franco eumque secutus Morales; sed quemadmodum intellegendus sit non assecuti sunt. Etenim in regia Solis illa Ovidiana materiam valvarum per se pretiosissimam superabat etiam artis Mulciberi praestantia; verum hic, ubi de sacello agitur ex lapide vili facto, quomodo materia ipsa artem architecti vincat, quaeritur. Morales, qui Alcántaram ipse nunquam adiit, ut difficultatem hanc explicaret, totum sacellum praeter portam, quam tribus lapidibus praegrandibus constare ait (quod secus est) et tectum ex ipsa rupe excavatum esse sibi persuasit: 'las tres paredes, que forman el templo son cavadas en la peña viva, siendo solas portadas y cubiertas postizas; con esto tuvo mucha razon el artifice de llamarlo templo en la roca de Tajo, .... tambien con mucha razon diro al reves de Ovidio, que la materia vencia al arte, por ser natural la fabrica de las paredes y las piedras postizas ser tan grandes, que causan espanto y maravilla, sin averla en la lavor, pues es toda lisa. Lo mucho es el ser las piedras y las paredes tamañas por su natural, siendo muy poco lo que les añadio el arte en cavarlas y alisarlas.' Moralem sequitur Quintanadueñas. At minime ex ipsa rupe sacellum factum est, verum constat eisdem lapidibus quadratis, quam pons. Sed ut ponamus etiam ita fuisse, ut Morales voluit, tamen langueret sententia; quis enim illud in opere laudabit, quod materia rupis, rudis indigestaque moles, sola magnitudine artificium humanum superet? Male hoc modo famae suae consuluisset architectus, qui, ut Morales. bene observavit, ter nomen suum duodecim versibus repeti curavit ('asi honraban entonces á los profesores de las bellas artes' Cean p. 399 exclamat, et ipse architectus). Immo vero materia intellegenda est, ut sensit Franco neque vero plene exposuit, felix utraque causa sacri: ars exigua est, ut modeste confitetur artifex, sed vincit eam maiestas eius rei, cui impenditur, i. e. numini Caesaris reliquorumque divorum celebrando. Verum est materiam vocabulum non saepe hac significatione reperiri; sed Cicero ipse haec ait (de invent. 1, 5, 7): 'materiam artis eam dicimus, in qua omnis ars et ea facultas, quae conficitur ex arte, versatur; ut si medicinae materiam dicamus morbos ac vulnera, quod in his omnis medicina versetur, item, quibus in rebus versatur ars et facultas oratoria, eas res materiam artis rhetoricae nominamus.' Itaque ab aevi Traiani poeta non ex optimis gloriam imperatoris materiam operis tectonici dici non mirabimur.

5—10 Transpositiones horum versuum ortae videntur ex ipso ordine, quo disticha singula iuxta posita fuerunt in lapide. Contra antiquiorum testium consensum, qui 9.10 ante 7.8 posuerunt, quod vix ferri potest, acquievi in recentiorum ordine, qui a sententia magis probatur. Antiquiorum enim testium auctorem non semel peccasse documento est titulus fornicis (n. 760) foede ab eo corruptus.

5. 6. Explicat hoc distichon, si quid video, quis et quali voto templum dederit: idem, qui et pontem fecit, sacra haec fecit, i. e. templum dedicavit, et honore litaturo dedicavit, i. e. eo voto fecit, ut honos ille imperatori quasi munus oblatus ei litaturus sit, i. e. gratus acceptusque foret.

6 Laceri nomen pro C. Iulii Laceri artis historiae enchiridiis restituendum est; cf. Brunn Künstlergesch. 2, 337.

10 Sic intellego: divis Romuleis quoque, ut Caesari, munera sola litant, non preces promissave, itaque ut Caesari pontem, ita divis et Caesari aedem dedicavi.

12 Utraque causa sacri huius, i. e. templi a me dedicati, Caesaris et reliquorum divorum honor est; itaque iure utraque felix dicitur.