Horace is condemning an idle, licentious manner of living.
nos numerus sumus et fruges consumere nati,
sponsi Penelopae nebulones, Alcinoique
in cute curanda plus aequo operata iuventus,
30 cui pulchrum fuit in medios dormire dies et
ad strepitum citharae cessatum ducere curam.
Translation.
[ when we behave like that]
We are just numbers, born to squander the fruits [of the earth],
worthless [would-be] suitors of Penelope, and youth [-ful followers]
of Alcinous,
too much occupied with taking care of appearance
to whom it’s a fine thing to sleep till noon and,
to the strains of the cithara, forget about serious things.
I was baffled by cessatum, even after finding a commentary identifying it as the supine, which has always given me trouble. Grammar references give the accusative of the supine as used to show the end of motion, or the goal toward which motion is directed. Is it the idea here that ad strepitum citharae is a kind of motion, whose end is the carefree state of mind?
Lost a fuller reply, darn. The text here is somewhat questionable, but your reading is the most common; let’s take a stab.
‘Ad’ is here, in a freer poetic usage,
3 With an object which is the cause or reason, in conformity to which, from which, or for which, any thing is or is done.
equivalent to English ‘to the accompaniment of.’
The supine here is not so mysterious after all, though this one was to LS at first as well.
Cf. this basic example from the Latin Library: Stultitia est venatum ducere invitas canes. It is folly to take unwilling dogs to hunt.
After being reminded that ducere is itself a verb of motion, one can readily see that cessatum is in effect the end of motion/end as in ‘purpose’ of the infinitive ducere; literally ‘leading care/worry/anxiety to be inactive.’
From Wickham’s edition: If we accept it,it will probably mean ‘to beguile care into stopping.’