西塞羅主張在教育一位理想的演說者時應使其具備「古代全體，以及歷史例證的財富」。他在一篇簡短的贊歌中頌揚歷史的力量與成就：歷史照亮了過往的陰影（真理之光）；歷史是審訊中揭發所有真相的證人（證人）；歷史是記憶的活力，也是人生的顧問。歷史是修辭學的一部分，在西歐曾經成為通才教育重要的一員。被稱為「人文學者」的人（首例是在第十五世紀時）是一位從事於詩作、修辭、歷史與道德哲學教學的老師。此教育體系即是該專業（人文學者）與學科（人文學）名稱的起源。 其次，斯多亞學派有關人的學說提出：自然以理性人的一般性角色（人──面具）和個人的特殊角色（人本身）來為人裝扮。自然所賦與的第三個角色稱為「狀態、機會、時間」（狀況與時態）。因此，在此學說中，時間與心、個性、自由意志並列為人的組成成分。人被想像為在身、心方面是不完美的，被時間所塑造，註定要進步（改善、前進）。 在第三個層次上，歷史是人文精神本身的一個結構元素。剛才提到的修辭學和哲學傳統，以及數量可觀的科學年代記和歷史書寫皆已嵌入現代歐洲的人文精神中。其組成一再喚起歷史距離與文化差異的意識；這是非歐洲國家的世界觀、傳統和倫理系統被歸類為「人文精神」的一項必要前提。

The education of the ideal speaker must equip him with "all antiquity and a wealth of historical examples," thus argues Cicero. He extols history's power and achievements in a short hymn: history sheds light on the dark shades of past times (lux veritatis); history is a witness (testis) in a trial which should bring to light the whole truth; history is the living force of memory and the adviser of human life. Being a part of rhetoric history became an important element of general education in Western Europe. A man called "umanista" (first instances in the 15th century) is a teacher occupied with poiesis, rhetorica, historia, and moralis scientia. It is the education system which the names of the profession (umanista) and of the program (humanismus) are derived from. Secondly, the Stoic doctrine of man introduces Nature dressing him up with the general role (persona – mask) of a rational being and with the specific role (propria persona) of an individual. The third role which Nature imposes is called "situation, chance, time" (casus et tempus). In this doctrine, then, time ranks with mind, individuality, free will as constituents of the human being. Man is conceived of as imperfect in body and mind, shaped by time, destined do make progress (prokopé; pro-gredi). On a third level history is a structural element in humanism itself. The rhetorical and philosophical traditions just mentioned and a considerable bulk of scientific chronology and historiography were embedded in modern European humanism. Its very structure evokes, again and again, the awareness of historical distance and cultural difference that is a necessary precondition for a world view, a tradition, an ethical system in non-European countries to be classified as "humanism".