True. I saw a documentary stating that the average Roman solder stood just 5 foot 4 inches tall (162.5 cm). Even as recent as the 1860s the population was much smaller than today. Here in Chicago, the Chicago Historical Society has a display featuring the bed that Abraham Lincoln died in after being shot. Lincoln had to be laid on an angle to fit into this standard sized bed even though he was 6 foot 3 inches tall (198.1 cm) which was freakishly large by their standards.