Far be it from me to defend the copyright industry but I do like to point out that in the early 1800's 36 years was actually the average lifetime of an individual (at least here in Europe).
Only if you insist on using bad statistical methods. Averaging high infant mortality into the rest of the population leads to misleading claims like that. Do you really think most people dropped dead at 36?
"For example, a Roman Life Expectancy table at the University of Texas shows that at birth the life expectancy was 25 but if one lived to the age of 5 one's life expectancy jumped to 48."
No, 36 was the average life expectancy including child deaths (which disproportionately skewed the figures downwards, since a large number of babies died at or soon after birth, another good chunk didn't make it through their first year, and many more died of childhood diseases before they became adults).
If you made it past 25 as a white male you were quite likely to live to your 60s and beyond. That has been true since antiquity.
