Well, the suicide rates were probably pretty high in the Roman Empire, and they were certainly high during WW2, especially among people who were denied entry to

Well, the suicide rates were probably pretty high in the Roman Empire, and they were certainly high during WW2, especially among people who were denied entry to the army. Society as a whole wasn’t pessimistic during WW2, there was a very focused sense of doing what was required of you, which is why men committed suicide when they couldn’t fight for their country. We don’t have a very good view on how the mood was in the Roman Empire, as most information on commoners come from a few lines of text on their burial pottery, so it’s hard to say much about that. It probably wasn’t fun to be poor though. I can’t remeber either of those periods, and I was making a statement from my own world view, which is obviously anecdotal and may be flawed.