[jqm]

While all that is certainly true there were likely at least some advantages to ancient thinkers which we don't enjoy today.

If one was an elite a bunch of tasks that take up our modern time were taken care of via slavery. No thinking about bills and filling tax forms. No thinking about resumes. No job search. No washing the dishes. No worrying about parking the car and the apartment lease.

There were less distraction in general. No computers, very few (if any) books. The body of knowledge was very small. You could learn about pretty much everything that was known if were in the right situation. Today I can't even keep up with a small percentage of JavaScript frameworks much less everything else. At that point one could maybe really drill down and specialize and focus for long periods of time. Of course you did have disease and sore teeth and probably a short lifespan to contend with... but there were likely some advantages as far as flat out "thinking" goes.

[cafard]

Well, yes, but in Athens there was compulsory military service--Socrates's interlocutor from The Sophist returns in a dying state from a siege, which causes the narrator to remember the dialogue--there could be service in the courts as juror or judge, or other government service. I suspect that anyone looking for distraction in Athens found it.