Commentary Purg XX 25-30

For Fabricius see Fabbrizio.  The protagonist's special pleasure in hearing of him reflects some of the poet's nearly constant enthusiasm for models of Roman republican virtue.  (For the extraordinary importance of Roman republicanism to Dante see Davis [Davi.1984.1], pp. 224-89; and see Hollander and Rossi [Holl.1986.1], p. 75, for Fabricius's presence in four of the five collections of republican heroes offered by Dante in Convivio, Commedia, and Monarchia.)