THE SCENE: Pliny the Elder may have been a great scientist, but the passage below indicates that his understanding of human relations – particularly human sexual relations – was somewhat skewed.
THE TEXT: Man is the only animal whose first experience of mating is accompanied by regret; this is indeed an augury for life derived from a regrettable origin. All other animals have fixed seasons during the year for mating, but man, as has been stated, has intercourse at any hours of the day or night. All other animals derive satisfaction from having mated; man gets almost none.
– Natural History, Pliny the Elder, 1st Century AD
