Laudator Temporis Acti

Reinhold Merkelbach and Josef Stauber, Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, Bd. 2: Die Nordküste Kleinasiens (Marmarasee und Pontos) (Munich: K.G. Saur, 2001), pp. 123-124 (08/08/12, from Hadrianoi pros Olympon; click once or twice to enlarge): The Greek, followed by my translation:

[                       π]αίδων ἀώρ[ων                                        ]
[καὶ θ]ρῆνος γονέων ἀπαρήγορον ἐνθάδ' [ἀθρ]ήσας·
γνῶθι τέλος βιότου· διὸ παῖζε τρυφῶν ἐπὶ κόσμῳ,
πρὶν σῶν παίδων πένθος τοῖον ἀθρῆσαι ἐπὶ τύμβοις·
τίς ἡμετέρων γονέων παρήγορος ἔσται ἐνὶ οἴκῳ        5
ἢ θρῆνος παύσει πολυώδυνον ἐν βιότοιο;
τίνα χερσὶν πατὴρ ἢ περιπτύξεται ἢ τίνα κλαύσει;
Μηνόφιλον θρηνεῖ· Τερτύλλαν παρήγορον ἕξει;
ἢ Μαιάδιν τὸν ἄριστον; πλείω πένθος ὤπασε τούτοις·
πάνγεος καὶ δῆμος ἡμετέρους γονεῖς στονάχη[σεν],        10
τοὺς πολύπαιδας ἄπαιδας ἐν στέρνοις ἰὸν ἔχοντας,
ὧν βίος ἠμαύρωται παίδων χάριν ὧν τέκον αὐτοί·
καὶ θρῆνος βαρύδουπον ἔχει πατὴρ Εἱλάσιος οἴκοις
σὺν φιλίῃ συνεύνῳ, ἡμετέρῃ μητρὶ Σωφρονίῃ·
λείψατε νῦν θρήνους, γόους, στοναχάς, ἱκνούμεθα νε[κροί],        15
καὶ σκέπ[τεσθε κε]νοῖς Μαιαδίου λείψανον οἴκ[οις,]
τεχθεῖσαν Πρισκιανὴν πενταμηνιαῖον κατ[αθήκην].

...                  of the children who died prematurely                          ...
and having looked upon the inconsolable lamentation of the parents here.
Recognize the end of life; therefore play, enjoying yourself in the world,
before looking upon such sorrow on your children's graves.
Who will be a comforter in the house of our parents
or who will end their very painful lamentation in life?
Whom will our father embrace in his arms or whom will he mourn?
He laments Menophilos; will he have Tertulla as a consolation?
Or Maiadios, the best? He increased their sorrow;
The people holding the whole earth sighed for our parents,
who had many children but are childless and have an arrow in their breasts,
whose life is weakened because of the children they produced.
Our father Heilasios has loud-sounding lamentation in the house
together with his dear wife, our mother Sophronie;
now leave off lamentations, wailings, sighings, we the dead beseech you,
and in the empty house look upon Maiadios' relict,
Priskiane, born five months ago, entrusted to you.

There is a Latin translation of the epitaph in Ed. Cougny, Epigrammatum Anthologia Palatina cum Planudeis et Appendice Nova Epigrammatum Veterum ex Libris et Marmoribus, Vol. III (Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1890), pp. 187-188 (number 589, reading στονάχησει with Le Bas and Waddington in line 10):

. . . . . de liberis intempestivum . . . .
et lamenta parentum quae solatium-non-capiunt hîc intuitus,
nosce finem vitae: quamobrem lude deliciis-indulgens in mundo,
prius tuorum liberorum luctum talem quam videas in sepulcris.
Quis nostrorum parentum consolator erit in domo,
aut lamenta excludet aerumnosa e vita?
Quem manibus tenebit (parens uterque) aut amplectetur aut quem flebit?
Menophilum luget; Tertullam consolatricem habebit
aut Maeadum optimum? majorem luctum dedit iis.
Omne genus et populus omnis nostros parentes miserabitur,
qui multos-liberos habuere liberorum-orbos, in pectore telum habentes,
quorum vita obscurata est liberorum gratia, quos genuere ipsi.
Et lamenta graviter-sonantia habet pater Ilasius
cum dilecta conjuge, matre nostra, Sophornia.
Linquite jam lamentationes, gemitus, querelas, obtestamur mortui,
et tueamini Maeadii reliquias viduis in aedibus
partam Priscianam, quinque-mensium depositum.

Georg Kaibel, Epigrammata Graeca ex Lapidibus Conlecta (Berlin: Reimer, 1878), p. 135 (on lines 5-9):

quem pater deflebit? quem consolantem habebit? flet Menophilum: num Tertulla eum consolabitur aut Maeadius? Maeadio et Tertullae uxori vel plura dedit lugenda mala fortuna (πένθος), quippe qui non parentibus solum filii, sed etiam filiolae parentes erepti sint.