From the propaedeutic session of a seminar I recently listened in on: Bad philosophers point out the errors in others' philosophies. Good philosophers find the merits in others' philosophies. Great philosophers find the reasons for the errors and meritorious aspects of others' philosophies.
Bit historicist and possibly Hegelian, but no less true for that. Plato didn't argue against his interlocutors, he led them to their own strengths.
There is a correlative to travelling through these societies. Just as you can see the direction of the wind from the way the trees have fallen after a storm, the great north-south and east-west currents of history have marked the peninsula. I don't think you can understand the present nature of this city without knowing that it was an important place on the road from Rome to Constantinople, and one that fell under the control of the Sublime Porte. Just as you can't understand the 14th c. mass conversions slightly inland further up the coast without realizing that the military forces from the south would invade within a century. And forces from the east, west, and north have left similar traces.
The challenge is to fashion individual lives of fullness within these world-historical lines of force. One you get past the Hegelian fallacy that since the nation can do things that individuals can't do, it is therefore the grounding for the individual, you cease to look to these winds for actual sustenance or even ultimate spiritual purpose. But, and this is where the greater reading comes in, it was the greatness of those times, and offers a dimension of experience to the present. And the challenge is to bring these spiritual purposes forward in time within a culture that values individual human lives a bit more. (Without identifying that with a wind from any direction -- it must come from the place simpliciter.)
The richness of earth, but lifted a bit more out of the mud.