The article is devoted to three politicians and intellectuals – the republican leader Cato of Utica, Neroʼs tutor Seneca and Trajanʼs friend Pliny the Younger. An uncompromising fighter against tyranny, Cato chose to commit suicide rather than accept the dictatorship of Caesar. The conformist Seneca, who consciously accepted autocracy and dreamed of the rule of an ideal princeps, was forced to commit suicide under the compulsion of his unworthy pupil, emperor Nero.
