“The Seleucid king Antiochus IV endeavored to abolish Jewish tyranny and to introduce Greek civilization… The Romans picked up where the Greeks left off in the campaign to rid the world of sexual disfigurements of all degree.  Upholding a standard of benificence all their own, the Romans united the Greeks’ high regard of the intact body with a greater gift of administration.  Around 132 A.D. Hadrian issued a universal decree outlawing circumcision, under death penalty.  The fact that circumcision was punished with the maximum penalty allowed under law, attests to the strength of Greek and Roman views on the subject.  Taking into account the compassionate spirit of the almost identically framed laws banning castration, the ban on circumcision was most certainly motivated by humanitarian and ethical charitable considerations.” The Ideal Prepuce In Ancient Greece And Rome CIRP.org.