The Roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 B.C. - A.D c. 17) wrote his Ars Amatoria of The Art of Love around the time of Christ.

The book was described as an "immoral book" representing the art of love as "the adulterer's art rather than the husband's art" by Irish writer H. Montgomery Hyde in A History of Pornography. But the book won the praise of Renaissance humanists. It begins with the words -

"Should anyone here not know the art of love read this, and learn by reading how to love. By art the boat’s set gliding, with oar and sail, by art the chariot’s swift: love’s ruled by art."