"It was common at the time for artists to imagine ancient times to be similar to their own."
For the less educated artist this would probably have been the case, but there was a long tradition in European painting to set ancient scenes in contemporary settings. Often elements from several eras were thrown together: a Holy family dressed in ancient Roman garb in a 17th century church.

The idea, in addition to being a simple matter on convenience, was to bring the ancient story into a setting more familiar to the intended viewers, thus bringing a story from a distant place home.

Well looking at them never did anything for me and painting them didn't do Rothko much good either.

If you look at his early work it seems clear he couldn't paint figures and so tried his hand at abstraction. Like his Ab. Ex. brethren, he seems to have taken the whole heroic existentialist thing for too seriously which led only to despair and so I'll take a pass on meditating on his work.

They make good backdrops for photographs and movies, though.

Yes. I was run down by a motorist for daring to share the road in Philadelphia.

Good grief, people are skittish about getting hurt! I've been involved in more cycling accidents than I can count... plenty of scrapes and bruises but no head injuries.

At some point a person has to stop worrying about the possibility of injury and take a little risk in the name of fun or gain or whatever.

Good question. I've seen a handful of jewelers unsuccessfully attempt to turn these expanded hollow-point bullets into earrings, pendants, rings, etc. The results are always rather ugly. This guy's little bouquet actually works, in it's own lighthearted way, and he's not a jeweler; he's an ex-military guy who runs a gun blog.

Tuohy's blog is a great resource for concise and unbiased tests and reviews.