that is a little funny you're right. It reminds me of something interesting I read, don't know if it's true or not. I heard that in the "middle ages" (or dark ages) it was taken for granted that the ancients -- meaning the Greeks and maybe even the Romans, not sure -- had been way wiser and more knowledgeable than them. (You know, as they read Euclid's elements and Socrates and stuff.) As I remember it, all the way through the Renaissance that was the thinking, that the ancients had known way more.
Imagine thinking that the ancients knew more than we ever will, and trying to study their works to get at just some of the wisdom they had held. I think few if any people read ancient authors that way today.
however my memory on this subject may be shaky.