In antiquity, people did not consider themselves to be defined by such a thing as “sexuality”, and the sex of the person desired was not a criterion used to define and categorize a desiring subject. It was never thought that individuals, whether men or women, whatever their status (citizen, resident alien, foreigner, or slave), their origin or their social background, could be grouped under a single heading on the sole basis that they were attracted to persons of the opposite sex or on the criterion of their attraction to persons of the same sex. The principal distinction perceived in antiquity was not between the sexes but between those who were free and those who were not, those who could dispose of their own bodies and those whose bodies belonged to a master.
