Greatest civ of all time

[Pangur Bán]

OK, here's an issue which has always fascinated me.
What is the greatest civilisation in history? Ignore the quibbles about categorization for the purposes of this thread as much as possible, and consider the answer in terms of originality, historical influence and duration.
Some crude lumping together occurs on the poll for the purpose of avoiding an infinite number of choices and some important individual civs are grouped into broader categories. (Unavoidable).

My vote goes firmly with the Greeks, my reasons are that while civs like the Egyptians, Babylonians and others stagnated intellectually for thousands of years BY COMPARISON and dissapeared by the time of the Romans, the Greeks gave us rational science and gave birth in most important respects to the culture of the West. This culture has now created a global culture which may last until the end of history. There are other reasons as well, but these seem to me to be the most important.

PS: there is a similar thread:

forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14985

 

[allhailIndia]

YOU FORGOT THE ROMANS :aargh3:

 

[Pangur Bán]

I intentionally didn't include them because:
1. They could be included among the European or even the Hellenic civs
2. using the terms in the first post, they do not compare with the other two as a separate civ, and because of the similarity they are not realistic contenders for greatest civ ever.

 

[Gandalf13]

Romans are unqualified? My vote goes with them, hands down.

 

[TubaGuy]

I'm gonna have to go with romans as well.

 

[RenegadeXH]

While the Europens are not the most interesting civiliziation ever in history, it is pointless to say that any has had such a great efect on the world as the Europeans. They(we) went from being a back water, impoverished group of small towns controlled by pety lords, to being conguered by the germanic tribes, to becoming the most powerful, influential, and rich civilization in the world. Now, the Americans who have become the center of the European civilization efect every corner of the Earth as well as space.
Any thoughts?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Aren't threads on my-empire-is-bigger-and-better-than-your-puny-one banned?

It is that important to put up yet another argument about who's the biggest contributor to human civilisation again? All civilisations have their roles to play, and had made their individual contributions.

And that's good enough for me.

 

[RenegadeXH]

Knight Dragon, are you going to argue that some civiliziations are not more influential than others? Its not like in kindergarden when the says, "Now everyone is special in there own way". This is the real world, there are winners and losers, and as they say, history is writen by the victors.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by RenegadeXH
Knight Dragon, are you going to argue that some civiliziations are not more influential than others? Its not like in kindergarden when the says, "Now everyone is special in there own way". This is the real world, there are winners and losers, and as they say, history is writen by the victors.

So there are. But after seeing the umpteeth thread about the greatest civilisation in the world, one is bound to get a bit . Ever notice most posters will always argue for their own civilisation grouping/kingdom/nation/whatever?

Oh, if I have to argue, I'll say China. It's here as a powerful entity a few thousand yrs ago, it's here (becoming a powerful entity) today and it'll probably be here in the future too. Where would we be w/o paper, gunpowder and the compass?

 

[Han Wu Di]

There are real winners and losers! Well said!
I would have to say it is China.British would not have its industrial revolution that forever change the status of the west of being economically inferior than China ,without the iron technology from China .
Their production output continues to be the world largest from the time of Han Dynasty till the middle of Qing Dynasty around 1800's .During these period,their economy is even larger than the ENTIRE WEST.During the 19,20th century China was in a dark age as she faced the most humiliation period of her history and during these period China was sleeping.
China have a bright future ahead in the 21st century,the West do not ,many of the Western experts have claimed the West is going to fall during the 21 st century.
"When China wakes,it will rock the world"Napeleon
Just think one nation China has a bigger and larger production output(economy) than the entire west till the 18 th century.This country alone is richer than the combined Germany,France,Russia,British,Italy,Spain,Greece and other western nation combined is not as rich as China
During the late 18 th century ,China had 1/3 of the worlds output while the west had only about 20 % of the world's output.One nation miracle
When China becomes a superpower it can do much a better job than the west.why?When our great explorers sailed as far as America ,Africa and Australia ,he didnt colonise any land or take slavery of those people.During that time China definitely had the military strenth to colonise land,but China didnt want to colonise them,China is not a big bully.To those people who think China colonise Tibet,listen Tibet is a

 

[God]

Well my favorite civs are:
The Romans- because they had such a great military and its quite interesting to read about their tactics and strategies.
Seljuk Turks- Kicked those Crusaders @*%s! Oh well the Mongols came and destroyed them mostly.
Mongols- Like to read about their war tactics also. Very interesting bunch.
Persians-They had great names. . They also had one of the largest if not the largest empire in BC times(Rome reached its height IMO btw 0AD-186AD, which is a bit later). I'm not sure about this but did the Persians at their height have a larger empire then the Romans at their height?
Prussia- Bismarck, another intersting guy, again with the war stuff.
Celts- The wildest group ever! The Romans were so scared off them they built every fortification and trap possible to destroy their last stronghold.

Now if you ask the greatest civ ever? Thats really hard to answer. I'd say the top 4 to be: China, England, Rome, India.

 

[napoleon526]

Are we talking about most influential, powerful, culturally advanced, or just our personal preference?

 

[MajorGeneral2]

China has been productve because it has a lot of people. Yes, Napoleon will probably be right about China. However, China won't be able to get much done in the near future. The world is to small. If the Chinese even try to get aggressive, she'll have to fight Europe, the United States, Russia, other Asian powers, anyone else belonging to the U.N., and whoever they went after originally. Any fool can see that nobody can fight the world and win. Thus, I won't worry about them for now.

 

[Kenric af Grashen]

The Egyptians
They built great wonders which have lasted since their time. They are currently the longest surving civ but probably not for much longer with China catching up. at one point their empire stretch from Libya and Nubia to Asia minor and India. Their religion was the most diverse religion compared to everyone elses and still survives in pockets today e.g. My House

 

[puglover]

America!

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Sa~Craig
The Egyptians
They built great wonders which have lasted since their time. They are currently the longest surving civ but probably not for much longer with China catching up. at one point their empire stretch from Libya and Nubia to Asia minor and India. Their religion was the most diverse religion compared to everyone elses and still survives in pockets today e.g. My House

The ancient Egyptians, as we knew it fr archaelogy and ancient records, had been pretty much assimilated by foreign invaders, ever since the time when the New Kingdom had been overrun.

And the Egyptians' power never reached India. Heck, they never even reached Mesopotamia or Persia. Their furthest extent was into Syria AFAIK and then they bumped into the Hittites. And then only briefly for a couple of decades.

 

[Kenric af Grashen]

acctually during the ptlomic dynasty egypt became the richest empire in the world as well as as large as stated in my previous post and as the Ptlomeys worship the Egyptian gods i think its fair to say that it was an egyptian empire

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Sa~Craig
acctually during the ptlomic dynasty egypt became the richest empire in the world as well as as large as stated in my previous post and as the Ptlomeys worship the Egyptian gods i think its fair to say that it was an egyptian empire

Conceded but arguable. Egypt had always been a wealthy place, which was why so many peoples wanted to conquer it as a province.

But richest in the world....

Even so, that can hardly account for them being the longest surviving civ; Pharaonic Egypt had long been dust by the time the modern day Arabic rulers came along. There's no much of a cultural continuity betw Ancient Pharaonic Egypt and modern Arabic Egypt.

And the Ptolemies never reached Mesopotamia either IIRC; the Seleucids got in the way...

Add : And the Ptolemies only practised the forms of the Egyptian kingly rites; to legitimize their rule over Egypt. To say that they actually practise the ancient Egyptian religion...

 

[carniflex]

Greeks.

Greeks, for what we know they were: inventors of democracy.
We're speaking of the greatest civ, not the greatest empire: Romans were barbarians. Europeans are barbarians.
In fact: they didnot and dont speak greek !

 

[erez87]

where are the jews?
they are the ONLY civ that almost havn't been changed since he've been created...