3 perfuga = a deserter. Aulus Gellius says the traitor was Nicias, a friend of Pyrrhus; Florus and Eutropius, a physician of Pyrrhus.
8 atqui = and yet, a more emphatic at.
8-9 speciem utilitatis opinionemque (sc. utilitatis) = the semblance and (popular) opinion of expediency.—H.
11-13 sed magnum . . . superatum = but it would have been a lasting disgrace and scandal for a general, with whom the struggle lay for glory, to have been overcome by an act of wickedness and not by valour.—H.
14 Aristides Athenis. Aristides the Just. ‘Sans Peur et sans Reproche.’
19 quoquo modo = in any way. Cf. quacumque ratione.—H.
Parallel Passage. Eutropius ii. 7. 8. 14: Tum Pyrrhus admiratus eum dixisse fertur: ‘Ille est Fabricius, qui difficilius ab honestate quam sol a cursu suo averti potest.’
Fabricius, like Cincinnatus and M’. Curius Dentatus, is the representative of the purity and honesty of the good old times.