It is profoundly true that the ancient world was more modern than the Christian.

The common bond is in the fact that ancients and moderns have both been miserable about existence, about everything, while mediaevals were happy about that at least.

I freely grant that the pagans, like the moderns, were only miserable about everything--they were quite jolly about everything else.
I concede that the Christians of the Middle Ages were only at peace about everything--they were at war about everything else.

But if the question turn on the primary pivot of the cosmos, then there was more cosmic contentment in the narrow and bloody streets of Florence than in the theatre of Athens or the open garden of Epicurus.

Giotto lived in a gloomier town than Euripides, but he lived in a gayer universe.
The mass of men have been forced to be gay about the little things, but sad about the big ones.