Laudator Temporis Acti

Reinhold Merkelbach and Josef Stauber, edd., Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, Bd. 3: Der „Ferne Osten“ und das Landesinnere bis zum Tauros (München: K.G. Säur, 2001), p. 172, no. 16/04/04 (from Apameia in Phrygia, 3rd century A.D.): Transcription of the Greek followed by my translation:

τὸ ζῆν ὁ ζήσας καὶ θανὼν ζῇ τοῖς φίλοις,
ὁ κτώμενος δὲ πολλὰ μὴ τρυφῶν σὺν τοῖς φίλοις
οὗτος τέθνηκε περιπατῶν καὶ ζῇ νεκρ[ός·]
ἐγὼ δὲ ἐτρύφησα Μηνογένης ὁ κὲ Εὐσταθής,
μετέδωκ[α] ἐμαυτοῦ πάντα τῇ ψυχῇ καλά·
ἀμάχως ἐβίωσα μετὰ φίλων κὲ συνγενῶν,        5
μηδέποθ' ὑπούλως ἢ δολίως λαλῶν τινι.
οὗτος ὁ βίος μοι γέγονεν, ὅταν ἔζων ἐγώ·
ἐς πάντα δ' ηὐτύχησα, ἐμαυτὸν πιστεύσας θεῷ,
τὸ δ' ὀ[φ]ειλόμενον ἀπέδωκα τῇ φύσι τέλος.        10

Ῥοῦφος ἐπύησα Μηνογένει μου γλυκυτάτῳ πατρὶ
κὲ Παύλει Μ[η]νογένου φιλάνδρῳ μέχ<ρ>ι τέλους.

He who has lived his life lives on for his friends even after he has died;
but he who possesses much without enjoying it with his friends,
that one is the walking dead and a living corpse.
I, Menogenes, also known as Eustathes, enjoyed myself,
I gave a share of all good things to my soul,
I lived without strife with my friends and relatives,
never speaking to anyone in a hollow or deceptive way.
Such was my life when I lived;
in all things I was fortunate; having entrusted myself to god,
I gave back to nature the end I owed.

I, Rufus, made this for my most dear father(-in-law)
Menogenes and for Menogenes' daughter Paula, who loved her husband until the end.

Viktor Schultze, Altchristliche Städte und Landschaften, II: Kleinasien, 1. Hälfte (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1922), p. 405, regards the inscription as anti-Christian, but I'm not convinced:

Die bewußte Gegensätzlichkeit gegen das Christentum tritt deutlich hervor; Anspielungen auf neutestamentliche Stellen sind unverkennbar, z. B. Matth. 6, 19 ff.; Luk. 12, 19 ff.; Jak. 5,5; 1.Tim. 3, 3; Tit. 3, 2 (ἄμαχος); 2. Kor. 11, 13 (δόλιος). Vor allem aber tritt die absichtliche Gegenüberstellung hervor in dem stark betonten ἐμαυτὸν πιστεύσας θεῷ, womit der Heide das Vertrauen auf eine göttliche Weltleitung auch für sich in Anspruch nimmt.

Likewise W.M. Ramsay, The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Vol. I, Part II: West and West-Central Phrygia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1897), p. 477, so maybe I'm wrong:

The chief interest of the inscr. lies in the first ten lines, the composition of Menogenes himself. Menogenes Eustathes was an epicurean in philosophy, and the lines express his views on life, in a tone very similar to no. 232, and like it bearing the stamp of anti-Christian feeling. The Christian spirit which objected to free enjoyment of life for self and friends is stigmatized as 'death in life.'

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Gonzalo Jerez Sánchez asks (in an email):

In Εὐσταθής shouldn't it be Εὐστάθης? Should it come from Εὐστάθιος οr directly from εὐσταθής, Gk personal names have usually recessive accent (cf. Φαῖδρος < φαιδρός, Λάμπρος < λαμπρός, in the very inscription Μηνογένης < μηνογενής).

On this tendency see Philomen Probert, Ancient Greek Accentuation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 298.