In the preface to Three Deaths Maykov explained that he wanted to "show the antagonism of the two ideas" that clashed in the late Roman Empire and "just couldn't co-exist peacefully... Sensuality and spirituality, the outer and the inner life emerged as enemies, in direct opposition to each other and were doomed to fight a deadly battle.
In fact, I started upon it several times, trying to improve one character or the other, depending which school of thought I was under the influence of, the Epicureanism or the Stoicism," he wrote in his 1850 autobiographical notes.
[1] In December 1854 an amateur production of the play was presented in the house of the architect A.Stackensheider, featuring Maykov as Seneca, Vladimir Benediktov as Lucan and the art teacher N.O.
[1] "Maykov has written a superb poem called Choice of Death which is something unheard of in the modern history of our poetry," wrote Pyotr Pletnyov to Yakov Grot on September 29, 1851.
In an October 31 letter he continued: "Maykov recited both of his new poems at my place, one being Choice of Death, another "Savonarola"... Alas, the publication of [the former] now is out of the question: our censorship behaves like a boa constrictor rushing instinctively to strangle all things still breathing.