Not all bloody peasants were mud miserable sods who played with mud all day.
Most of them had a life.

That depends on tlhe location. There were absolute shitholes with people living in mud huts, toiling cold soil for meager crops. The there were rich citites, bathing in mediterranean sun, growing fat on trade routes and even piggybacking on Roman infrastructure. Even the latter could fall into total disarray after a couple of bad harvests, disease outbrakes or a passing marauding army.