What was life like for the majority of people in ancient empires?
For the majority in ancient empires, life was mere existence under abject poverty, slavery, and oppression, unless one was among the very elite ruling class. There were no human rights until the Magna Charta in England around the 14th century.
Les explains that all these great empires are bestial in their behavior, greed, and treatment of their subjects. He notes that throughout human history, unless a person was fortunate to live among the very elite in the ruling class, life for the rest of the people was just existence, mostly under abject poverty, slavery, and oppression. He says it was not until the Magna Charta came out of England around the 14th century that some human rights were delineated; before that, there was no such thing as human rights. Even in Western civilizations since then, there has only been a semblance of human rights, and many people still live downtrodden, groveling in poverty, showing we are not in utopia. Daniel sees these empires coming out of the mass of humanity, bestial in their makeup, unfolding as Nebuchadnezzar saw them, with the first like a lion, which is Babylon.