Michel Foucault takes us into the first two centuries of our own era, into the Golden Age of Rome, to reveal a subtle but decisive break from the classical Greek vision of sexual pleasure.

He skillfully explores the whole corpus of moral reflection among philosophers such as Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca, and physicians of the era. Foucault uncovers an increasing mistrust of pleasure and growing anxiety over sexual activity and its consequences.