| Summary: | Stone discusses his latest research for his book on constitutional rights and sex, examining the antecedents of Supreme Court decisions and earlier American attitudes towards sex. In this lecture, he discusses the contents of his first chapter which focuses on the ancient world. The ancient Greeks accepted multiple sex roles and acts, regarding them as a matter of preference and not to be regulated by the state. Roman sexual life was more restricted, but Roman law made no distinction between heterosexual or homosexual sex. In Rome also, there was no concept that sexual relations should be regulated by the state. Ancient Jewish law did not put restrictions on sexual practices and early Christians accepted this attitude originally. Later Christians came to regard sex as temptation to defeat and the body something to reject in favor of spiritual concerns. With the adoption of Christianity and it's increasingly strict attitudes towards sex for precreation only, the state became increasingly involved in regulating behavior, leading to laws concerning sexuality.
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