You're not looking at it the right way. Deaths should be looked at with respect to proportion, not numbers. In many cases suffering was equal if not worse to modern day suffering. You say ten times more people die today? Well, there we ten times less people "yesterday". Population growth is exponential, as is mortality. They correlate quite nicely.

Now just so you know. I do agree with you with respect to the causes. All of the same vices still exist that create suffering today. If you want more proof on this subject look at primate societies. All chimpanzee societies have warfare. It's quite brutal also. Interestingly enough, mortality rates among chimps are usually greater than that of humans. But only if you look at proportionally.

So saying suffering is worse today isn't quite right, but the fact is that we (Prols, as Orwell would put it) possess the greatest means to end it and yet we do nothing because we are too sparsely united and so greatly divided by culture and ideology. The second of which is greatly controlled by religion.