Why does it seem like torture was more widely practiced and accepted during previous eras? Was human life less valued? Did people lack empathy? Perhaps there were more sociopaths? Or perhaps sociopaths were more likely to rise to power?

Sorry, we don't allow throughout history questions. These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your question and submit it again.