Vasily Rudich examines the phenomenon of dissidence from both historical and psychological perspectives. He investigates the interaction of the universal components of human motive, thought and act, with those that are culturally conditioned. He portrays the predicament of the dissident in Nero's Rome as seen and felt by the dissidents themselves, and recreates their thought and conduct through their own conceptual and verbal means. Those who endured the tribulations of Nero's rule were broadly divergent in their motives and backgrounds: they ranged from cynical opportunists to intransigent...