Cato the Younger, Seneca the Younger, Pliny the Younger: conflict between norm and reality

Abstract

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. Pliny the Younger made a brilliant political career and, having survived the despotic regime of Domitian, created the image of «the best princeps» in the «Panegyric» dedicated to Trajan. 

Keywords

• cato the younger
• stoicism
• seneca
• «princeps optimus»
• pliny the younger
• trajan
• «panegyric»