This is the third in Rudich's trilogy on the intellectual roots of opposition to Nero's rule. The author's approach is based in his own experience, as a Russian exile, of the dissident mentality in the former Soviet Union, which gives the critical treatment of the sources an intriguing personal slant.

The book begins with an historical perspective on Rome's relationship with the Greeks and the Jews from their earliest contacts through the period of expansion to the fall of the Roman republic, and further chapters are dedicated to the Principate of Augustus, Judaea's 'triple administration', the political and cultural vicissitudes of Greeks, Jews and Christians in the period between the death of Augustus and the accession of Nero, the beginnings of the Christian Church, and the conditions of the Jewish community in Rome.

Preface Introduction: "The Vibrant Faith" 1. Chapter One: "The Breaking Point" 2. Chapter Two: "The Road Down" 3. Chapter Three: "The First Regime" 4. Chapter Four: "The Policies of Zeal" 5. Chapter Five: "The Dagger Men" 6. Chapter 6: "The End of the Factions" Conclusion

Vasily Rudich taught history and classics at Yale University in 1984-1995. He is the author of Political Dissidence under Nero: The Price of Dissimulation and Literature and Dissidence under Nero: The Price of Rhetoricization. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.