Note 305 — THE PROPHECY OF DANTE.
Reading edition
A verse from the Greek tragedians, with which Pompey took leave of Cornelia [daughter of Metellus Scipio, and widow of P. Crassus] on entering the boat in which he was slain. [The verse, or verses, are said to be by Sophocles, and are quoted by Plutarch, in his Life of Pompey, c. 78, Vitæ, 1814, vii. 159. They run thus—
Ὅστις γὰρ ὡς τύραννον ἐμπορεύεται, Κείνου ἐστὶ δοῦλος, κἂν ἐλεύθερος μῃ.
("Seek'st thou a tyrant's door? then farewell, freedom! Though free as air before.")
Vide Incert. Fab. Fragm., No. 789, Trag. Grec. Fragm., A. Nauck, 1889, p. 316.]