> You were think of the homonym "mores" as on "O tempora! O mores!" (Oh, the
> times! Oh, the morals!), which I believe is Seneca, right Carrol? --jks
I'm better on Greek than Roman sources -- but it sounds like a stoic to always be whining. :-) My favorite Latin is "laudatores temporis acti," as in the lines from Canto 15:
and the swill full of respecters,
bowing to the lords of the place,
explaining its advantages,
and the laudatores temporis acti,
claiming that the shit used to be blacker and richer
and the fabians crying for the petrification of putrefaction . . . .
Would "O tempora o mores" be an implicit claim that the shit used to be blacker and richer? If it was Seneca, that might have been his view.
Cantos 14-16 were mostly Pound's reaction to the Great War *before* he had discovered Mussolini and become a self-conscious fascist.
Carrol