How really \'different\' were the Romans?

[Lyceum]

There has been no appreciable evolution of humankind in those 2,000 years - in fact there is a good argument that we have devolved more in the last 50 years than evolved in the last 50,000!

Right so the basics of evolutionary biology are also something you don't understand - we don't "devolve". There's a reason that term appears in racialist pamphlets and not in bio textbooks which discuss adaptivity and selection. Also, yes, our nutritional profiles are markedly different from those of the past...

To answer your question, which isn't a question given the literal mountains of info, yes we're rather different. That's the whole point of what Classicists do. That's why they don't just pick up a text and read it and make a judgement without employing a myriad of technical skillsets. Within the discipline there is this thing called "context".Tongue in cheek: Unless of course they're trying to become famous or secure more funding in which case "yes the Greeks Romans were just like us! totally the same! So relevant".

I've never got why people find these concepts so difficult to grasp. I think it's because most people inhabit a monolingual monocultural untravelled bubble. The world as it stands is massively varied, what makes you think the past wasn't? This...isn't a difficult concept.

P.S one of the easiest ways to get involved in the guts and nuts is through law and social organisation. Well, relatively easy, certainly easier than the traditional philological aspects and religion. I don't know much Roman law but for Greek there's a series of good books and articles by S.C Todd ("The Shape of Athenian Law" and McDowell.

I don't know Roman Law outside little bits for, say, free speech or where religion intersects so I won't recommend a textbook but Scheid's "La Religion des Romans" is a classic. It doesn't cite a lot but it's deliberately simple and aimed at non classicists hence lack of constant footnotes. It has a good "further reading" list. It's really good at highlighting how useless modern concepts can be.