The Greeks lived with very little history, but with an incredible amount of Mythos; in the latter they exulted themselves as godlike, and all other nations as barbarians. Read Burckhardt on this; Greek history - as in Heredotus etc., was all 'in living memory' and infused with the mythical and fantastical.Nietzsche's essay on history "challenges the value of historical knowledge and insists that the pursuit of it should serve some higher end" [Hollingdale].

The highest sign of health is signified by the most extreme degree of will to power; if learning from others is a means to this end, fine, but it is certainly not an end in itself; also, the Romans were healthy by NOT learning from others in the realm of Philosophy.

The fact that you can speak of Europeans and their attitude to 'natives' shows that Europe has invested an inordinate amount of will and energy in exploration, this in itself fueled by a desire to know more and more outside the frontiers of the homeland [even into Outer-Space]. Fascination with the 'far east' has long been in the European, whether in examples of Vikings trading along the Silk Route or the Grand Tour of British aristocrats like Byron [see his Childe Harold].As I've said, superiority is the basic mindset of all cultures, and Europeans are no exception. The creation myths of Native Americans include the concept that white men are underdone and blacks overdone in their god's bakery; only the Native American came out perfect. That is the basic perspective of every healthy people.

Nietzsche recognises that only a limited amount of historical knowledge is necessary, and also there is some learning that is unnecessary for a healthy people, such as the Romans and their denial of philosophy. Also Nietzsche saw the scholar as being different, and ranked lower than the philosopher.Not only that, European history shows a constant symbiotic relationship with outside cultures which led to colonialisation and eventually multyi-culturalism;
MULTI-CULTURALISM IS A EUROPEAN INVENTION!

Our view of history, our view of culture [the 'topic'], ultimately expresses our degree [or lack] of will to power.

The most barbaric and separated beasts of prey, the Blond Beasts, who ride the wave of the deepest unconscious level of primal cultural Archetypes, ERUPT with the most extreme Will To Power in a bloodletting Dionysian frenzy. They then impose their Iron Will after endless purges and transformations: they establish Order of Rank; they become an aristocracy.This is all in Nietzsche; weak-willed slaves do not have it in their 'blood' to understand.

Once Order of Rank is established, no matter how much is done to shore it up, the institution of power becomes gradually stale, and then corrupt. Liberalism creeps in, the caste system becomes a class system, until cross-breeding occurs ['eequaality']. The Noble blood is diluted, and the Blond Beast is tamed. This is the Decline of a Noble society, its degeneration. The slave mass gets ever more rebellious, and by fair means or foul, stages a revolt. When the slaves rule, then culture is doomed until the next cycle, and the invasion/resurgence of the Blond Beast.

The Overman arises not immediately, but after, the establishment of Order of Rank by the Blond Beast. So, to give a specific example, the Romans establish their small kingdoms as the fruit of Blond Beast invasions from the north into Italy. An Order of Rank is established with a patrician caste, governing a Res Publica. The Will To Power grows ever stronger and exterminates or appropriates neighbours and rivals. That the Blond Beast is still alive and well is shown by continual fighting, both inside and outside the growing Imperium. From this emerges an Overman, a Julius Caesar, who actually creates a New European Order, and is a World Historical figure. His legacy lives on in the Empire, which now has reached the limits of its own internal logic. It can expand no more, and begins slowly to contract. In the late Empire, slave revolts have more and more success; a slave religion is assimilated, the Order of Rank breaks down. But new Blond Beasts [from Germania] break in and begin the next regeneration.Culture and civilisation is complex, overlapping, and resurgent; as one wave floods another ebbs and so on.

My basic position is that 'learning' is a by product of the Lust for Power; Will to Power. The European exhibited, at that time, optimum will to power.

It is not hypothetical to say that the Greek historians were severely limited in scope, and their work itself is the evidence [check Herodotus, Thucydides, for example].As to philosophy, what the Greeks took from the far East was also limited, and it certainly wasn't footnoted. It was as you say, grabbed like a spear, and FLUNG FORWARD. That is not scholarship, that is will to power.Indeed, Nietzsche thought the idea of a 'will to knowledge' a sham. As Bacon said, 'knowledge is also Power'; the Greeks USED other influences to further their own will to power.

History is not an end in itself but a means to an end; therefore much will be rejected, much will be transformed, and much appropriated. The goal is always ascendant life, and not some scholarly learning for its own sake."Great learning and great shallowness go together very well under one hat".[Nietzsche, 'Uses and Abuses of History', V]

I say above that 'multi-culturalism' is a European invention,; but the important NUANCE is this - when Europe conquers she appropriates, she steals, she transforms, she incorporates.Culturally, Europe is a Beast of Prey still; she devours other cultures.
I say that Europe has only learned in the ravenous fashion that I describe, and that this is the only way to really learn if you want to maintain optimum will to power - all the rest is scholarship.