How did the 10 commandments differ from the religious laws of neighboring regions?

Idolatry in Greece, Rome and elsewhere tended to go hand in hand with cruelty and licentiousness, since the caprices which were claimed concerning the idols were adopted as an excuse to imitate those types of behavior.

Thus, for example, the "god" of wine was worshiped with drunkenness. In the Roman cities, these Bacchanalian feasts became so wild that a royal decree was promulgated banning them from the city limits.
The deities of fertility were worshiped with incest and immorality (see Leviticus ch.18). Prostitution was a fixed part of temple worship. In Judaism, a robber repays double to his victim, or works it off. Cutting off the hand of a robber is a punishable crime. Debtors are not imprisoned or harmed. They are made to sell property and/or work to repay what they owe. Compare this to the Roman practice by which anyone could accuse a man of owing them money and the debtor could be dismembered and killed (Roman "Twelve Tables of Law" code, 3:10).
Under Israelite law, "an eye for an eye" has always meant the monetary value placed upon it by the court (Talmud, Bava Kama 83b). Roman law, however, included literal retaliation (Twelve Tables, 7:9).
A Roman father could kill his male descendants for any reason, without trial (Patrias Potestas; Twelve Tables, 4:1).
Romans were killed for the crime of slander (Twelve Tables, 7:8).
A Roman could be killed for assembling a noisy crowd at night and disturbing the town (Twelve Tables, 9:6).
Under Israelite law, everyone had recourse to the courts. A child, widow, wife, etc., could seek legal action against any citizen to redress perpetrated harm. Compare this to Greece and Rome, in which children had no rights. Aristotle, who was among the greatest of the Greeks, and Seneca, the famous Roman, both write that killing one's unwanted babies is perfectly acceptable. Professor and former President of the American Historical Association, William L. Langer (in The History of Childhood), writes: "Children, being physically unable to resist aggression, were the victims of forces over which they had no control, and they were abused in almost unimaginable ways."