The greatest civilization ever (?)

[Mazigh]

what is the greatest known ( ancient ) civilization ?

i vote for the ancient egyptian civilization. and you ?

[Educate Me]

sumer and greece

[ndrthl]

There are plenty of interesting civilizations. My personal list:

1) First and foremost, Ancient Greece:
intellectual, aesthetic, philosophy, emphasis on humanity.

2) Judaism: compassion (golden rule), morality, monotheism, idea of God as an abstract idea not a concrete one, sense of redemption of the human kind;

3) Hindu: deep morality; high intellectuality; innovative; creative

4) Germanics: fight for freedom; fight for individuality; self empowerment; revenge wherever and whenever offense takes place; brio; sense of honour; warlike spirit

5) Rome: order, rationality, discipline, lawfulness;

6) Renaissance Italy: emphasis on humanity; arts;

They are the ones which strike me the most, but still Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, East Asia and Americas, plus Africa, each have contributed in their own way to develop us all.

[Hairless]

Have to add China in there.

[Mike the Jedi]

Hard to pick between Rome and Greece as they are very much alike, so I'll take a different route and go with the Persian Empire. Just for 'Naki.

[asdf]

Greece > Rome. Rome is just admistration. Law. Corruption. All that boring stuff.

[MC anunnaki]

PERSIA RULES!! ;D

To be more serious though, Greece. Where would the West be without those gyro-eating G(r)eekoids.

[gelaye]

i wouldnt say it was the greatest civilisation on earth, but the Axumite civilisation was pretty impressive! (i need to read up on it a bit more lol)

[mandate of heaven]

China!!!! the only ancient empire that has survived to this day and (arguably) still following the dynastic cycle.

[MC anunnaki]

It's a shame you don't have your emperors left! Emperors are wicked cool.

[Educate Me]

I wouldnt mind seeing Otto von Habsburg rulingn over Austria, Bavaria and other Catholic german states

+ trieste because being a landlocked country blows

[nordicyouth]

Quite frankly, I think that English civilization is primate. It combined the organization of the Romanum Imperium and a love for and interest in all others before it. It enshrined Teutonic democracy and freedoms in a system that existed nowhere else (i.e. innocent before proven guilty). It was the only empire to allow a truly free market where other competitors could prosper. It operated largely under Christian guidelines (despite excesses). It's economic, political, and military power at its height has not been matched by any Empire before or since. Even the Americans refuse to allow total free trade. Under British economic dominance, poor backward countries like Argentina could use the free market to get ahead. Now, the WTO tows the line, and the CIA takes care of dissenters. Outside of Rome, the British Empire was the only one that established 'Pax.' Pax Romana, Pax Britannia. Britain is the only major empire that never collapsed due to imperial overstretch, invasion, or internal upheaval. The U.K. today, remains a middle power, but an economic, political, and cultural powerhouse of the world. Despite seeming like a backwater of the world in 1500, Britain would grow larger than the Chinese, Indian, Persian, Ottoman, and Polish-Lithuanian empires that dwarfed it at that time. But 1500 was the starting point.

However, let's not forget that the British Isles were a centre of learning and political development since the Romans left.

We may be few or miscegenated, but Anglo-Saxons are the sh*t. Go Newcastle. And they better extend pub hours or else.

[Batrus]

The dradivian empire.

[mandate of heaven]

anunnaki said:

It's a shame you don't have your emperors left! Emperors are wicked cool.

We have emperor Hu Xuan Di, he seized the mandate of heaven from emperor Jiang Wu Di!

[Crimson Guard]

The Greatest is the Crimson Empire......