Ok, which civilization you think deserves the title??

One must define "greatest" in order to answer your question. Would longest standing empire warrant the title greatest civilization? Or would it be the empire with the most contributions to science, the arts, mathematics, et cetera?

I'll think about this one a bit more, though the Roman Empire immediately shot into my head upon reading the title of this thread.

Well yeah great in both. Military power, spread, science and stuff, you know..

Romans sure do stand in the forefront.

An interesting one to throw into the mix might be Imperialist England, they did more to globalize and modernize the world than anyone.

And of course I can't leave out my native country, we Americans are so awsome :P

Im going to have to go with ancient greece. They advanced the farthest in military tactics, technology, science, culture, achritecture, not to mention the bitrch of democracy.

Originally Posted by Rabs

Im going to have to go with ancient greece. They advanced the farthest in military tactics, technology, science, culture, achritecture, not to mention the bitrch of democracy.

I don't think I can agree with you because saying "ancient greece" is a lot like saying "modern Europe." It was as fractured, different, and problematic as Europe has been in the last century.

If you are aiming at Athens (like many tend to do when they talk about greece) then I certainly disagree since they got rolled by the spartans millitarily and our founding fathers based American democracy much more on Sparta than Athens.

Mayas

I'll go with the Celts.

Fantastic artwork, massive works in stone, the invention of chain mail, closeness to the land and nature all of these meant a great deal, but most of all they developed a high degree of civilization when the Egyptians hadn't made a single pyramid yet and having done so did not feel the need to subjugate others to that civilization.

There are so many to chose from. Just look at Alexandra The Great he set up an Empire right across the middle east and chunks of Asia. The Egyptians had a great Empire, So did the Romans and we must not forget the lands of the Vikings who managed to spread far and wide.

If your going to go with the shapeing of westren culture and politics i would have to say the Romans. Il stick to my guns though, i think Greece namely Athens was in my opinion the greatest civlization in history. Almost all of Roman culture comes from Greek culture, there architecture, and gods and cermoneys and in lots of ways there form of government.