> In ancient Rome, the gap between the rich and the poor was even more obscene that it is now.

Take those calculations for what you will, but according to papers like these ancient Rome acutally had a comparable Gini index to today's US:

https://doi.org/10.3815/007543509789745223

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTDECINEQ/Resources/Anci...