This is kind of a crackpot question. My apologies for asking it. Still, I believe it remains a few steps above, say, The History Channel, so I'm feeling gutsy enough to ask.

I've often been told that mildly alcoholic beverages were more common than "pure" water in pre-modern times, largely because the water wasn't really all that "pure", and even a small amount of alcohol helped kill germs. I've heard this about Greece, Rome, medieval Europe, and even (e.g.) early colonial America. (My history teacher said that Jamestown had a 90%+ mortality rate from dysentery until they started drinking cider.)

I do also remember hearing that these alcoholic drinks were often rather dilute by modern standards. (I recall something about Roman drinking parties involving the selection of an arbiter bibendi who would decide how many parts of water to mix with the wine—though maybe that was rather syrupy wine concentrate.)

So would it be fair to say that the average Roman in (say) the Republican era was drinking enough wine that, by modern standards, their BAC would be meaningfully above 0 for a good part of the day? This struck me as a rather outlandish idea, but then again, it occurred to me that many modern people routinely consume caffeine in significant quantities. The crackpot-meter starts pinging when I continue further along this avenue, but perhaps one could even talk about an alcohol society versus a stimulant society in a broad thematic way.