In order to be valid as characteristics of the spirit of an age, the features chosen must be independent of a partisan position in any particular religious, political, or other controversy. This does not mean that there is agreement about the answers to these questions, merely that there is agreement that they are the important questions. Though they are most easily seen in this philosophical context, they influence all aspects of existence because they influence the underlying attitude toward existence, the meaning of life, and the nature of humanity. For the sake of convenience and to demonstrate the pervasive nature of the spirit of an age, historical subject matter will be divided into six categories. Political history is concerned with wars, kings, government and relations between governments.
Social history is concerned with relations within families, communities and other social entities.
The Greek and Roman spirit is distinguished from that of earlier civilizations in that it separated religion from the economic, political, cultural, and other aspects of life and dealt with these matters in a rational fashion rather than in a mythopoeic fashion. The Hellenic World, was, therefore, marked by humanism, secularism, and rationalism. Philosophy and science could be removed from revealed religion. Kings and emperors were no longer gods or necessarily priests but were explained in other ways. Athenian domination of the ocean and Roman expansion of imperial control were no longer explained as being due to superior gods but as being undertaken to enrich the polity.