To you, which was the greatest ancient civilization? Which one do you think was the most important to the development of history? (although I know that each contributed to history in there own way) but, which one do you think was most important. Which one would you have liked to live in and why?


I really enjoy reading about ancient civilizations anything from Ancient Greece, Egypt, Incas, Aztecs, Mayans etc. My favorite though, would definitely have to be Egypt. I guess because of all the mystery that lies behind them. Also, I admire the intelligence and techniques they used in the construction of their Pyramids.



Titana

I consider it to be pretty much a three-way tie between the Greeks, the Romans, and the Hebrews. (Most people forget that last, but after all, Western civilization did kind of adapt their religion, and look at how much influence that had on Western civilization.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Two of your criteria are mutually exclusive for me, I think that the Chinese had the greatest ancient civilization (Although Greece, Egypt and Rome come very close), but a relatively small effect on history, due to their isolationist policies.

As for why China was the best, essentially they had the most advanced technology for quite a period of time, until they decided that they no longer needed new ideas and shut up like an oyster. They chose a rather bad time to do this, as the Renaissance happened just a few years later.

A funny footnote: When ambassadors from various European nations came and tried to get them to give up their isolationist policies they'd always bring clocks as a sign of how amazing their technology was and how they thought the universe worked. Now, the Chinese used to have clocks, but by that point had largely forgotten how to make them, so they were regarded with interest. However, the Chinese saw them mostly as funny trinkets and didn't reverse their policies. This, apparently, didn't dissuade other people from Europe trying to convince them, and they all brought clocks to present to the emperor. As far as I can work out the Chinese court had to have thousands of clocks, I mean, they would have to employ people to simply keep them all wound.

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Right--mine really only answers the second question, since the first is really only answerable by opinion, unless a definition for "great" is provided.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Yes, basically, the first question would be based only on personal opinion. In other words which was the greatest to you or what civilization do you admire most.

True, when it comes to Greece vs Rome many people consider it a tough decision. Both were considered by many to be very complimentary in their contributions to Western Civilization.



Titana

I'm afraid no ancient civilization would be much good to live in by our standards. Even if you were on or near the top, no matter how many slaves you had it wouldn't count for much during when Mr Cholera came to town. And even having a retinue of musicians on call couldn't provide as wide a variety of music as an ipod. Of course if the idea of having slaves appeals to you for some sick reason, you might think it would be worth it, but your chance of owning slaves instead of being one aren't good.

Thanks Ron, I like my civilization as well.

Had I been born a hundred years ago I wouldn't have made it out of my teens. Had a really bad burn when a half gallon of boiling water poured down the front of me, painkillers yay! Then a couple of years later I developed severe bacterial pneumonia, antibiotics! Yay! Screw the ipod!

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

Yeah, no kidding. I spend some weekends pretending to be in the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, but we leave out things like the Plague.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I find modern people really have trouble understanding just how poor the average person was before the industrial revolution. About the most accurate movie portrayal of the conditions people lived under in the middle ages that I can think of is Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Which is really kind of sad in itself. I've actually seen a few others that protrayed it well, can't remember the names of them though. One I believe was The Navigator. Don't ask me how it got this many stars, I thought it was a horrid movie. *shudder* I still feel disgusted at the time I spent watching it and that was 15 years ago. However I think it did protray the medieval period well from what I remember.

I'll take Cruel & Harsh Times To Live In for $500 Bob.

Gotta agree with those that wouldn't want to live in any time but now. For all it's weaknesses, there's no time like the present. I think if you plotted time on one axis and comfort level of the average person on the other, with the exception of maybe a couple small blips, you'd get a constantly increasing comfort level over time. For all the bashing done of the current state of society, I'll bet 99.99% of people would find trying to live even 3 or 4 generations ago positively intolerable.

In every respect I can think of, the ancient civilizations were very, . . . antiquated. Medicine, forget about it. Nutrition, average people were happy to get a meal, any meal. Education as we think of it, strictly for the elite. Entertainment, they couldn't get the cheapest dish Network package even if they had the money.

But seriously, even their "values" were barbaric. Human sacrifices were routine, death and war were sports, and they thought their leaders were gods. For anybody who thinks the ID'ers are tough to swallow, imagine what it must have been like to live under a ruler who thought they were divine.

The ancient "civilized" folks each got their turn, and no longer exist, for very good reasons. If society as practiced by the Romans was so great, they'd still be around. Nothing speaks like results.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Oh, of course they were horrible to live in, but at the same time they're still fascinating, and did contribute to our culture, so the original questions still work.

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In most ancient (and some current) cultures women were considered chattel.

I would NOT have made a good Athenian/Roman/medieval/pioneer woman. I like my microwave, washing machine, AC, computer and car. I like voting, making and spending my own money and being master of my own life - as much as a mother CAN be her own master.

Those times would be interesting to visit but I wouldn't want to live there!

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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

I agree, but I quess I will leave the last question out for obvious reasons.


We can stick to the first to questions.......



Titana

Ma'am take a long look at the globe. Most of South America, almost all of Africa, up through the Middle East and then you get to Asia. That makes the places that don't consider woman chattel pretty small. Been there, done that, came back home. Shoot, in Nigeria the still put women to death for carrying twins. You only make one soul per pregnancy, if you have more than one child its considered an abomination.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

I'm sure no one got burned at the stake either...

Bold is mine... geeze... where't the fun in that??

Some events I've been to have had stocks, though.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

The Celts.

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov