well i'm Jewish so the most i could be is the king david or in worst case poor "water-drawer" in a village.
look i think the life was bad in that age for the average pepole
but i dont think that what the make life great is the tv or computers cars....
the modern life reflected by world-view of free well and freedom
and what that you write above it's just a adjunct and repercussion of this
life
and sure after we have this stuff we cant think about live witout them but tihs stuff
dont make our life happier.
you bring up a interesting issue.
nice post take care...