How really \'different\' were the Romans?

[Urselius]

To return to the original topic, the average Roman was far more inured to both violence and "blood and guts" than is the modern "Westerner".

I know people who find the idea of handling raw meat repulsive and who would be put off eating if offered a cooked fish retaining its head. The Romans would have been exposed to seeing or taking part in, as inflicter or recipient of, corporal punishment relatively often - even well-born youngsters were often beaten by their teachers. Slaves were routinely tortured if their master or mistress died suspiciously. Capital punishment was public and also routine. Finally, the spectacle of the gladiatorial combat was considered to be beneficial - for the spectator - because it inured the Roman public to the sight of violent death.

Outside of soldiers directly involved in combat, and members of some criminal organisations, modern "civilised" people are not exposed to violence on the scale that the average Roman was and this must affect their relative attitudes and reactions to, and ability to cope with, violence - lethal violence especially.