They murdered every rabbi they could find and prohibited teaching Torah on penalty of death. The next day, Rabbi Akiva went to the marketplace and publicly taught Torah. He was arrested, sentenced, and tortured to death. The recognition that some things are worth dying for leads to the next point. Being alive is not the greatest good.
Life is precious and it's wise to cling to it tenaciously.
But life gains meaning from commitment to something more than life, and there is a time when not dying robs life of its meaning. Rabbi Akiva's sacrifice was not in vain. His death, like the death of those Jews throughout history who died rather than convert, taught us the extraordinary importance of our relationship with God. When you pay the ultimate price for something, it becomes more precious to you. It becomes yours.