Which was the greatest ancient empire?

Their greatness comes from many aspects of their life that personally I find refreshing. The Spartans did not become a 'comfort' state but prefered a simple plain life without the need to fill their lives with trivial things. True patriotism is another very noble thing, so is viewing everyone the age of your parents as your parents. Respect for those young and old, plus we shouldn't forget how 'free' women were in Spartan society compared to being practicly prisoners in their own houses in Athens.

Their government is an interesting one, two Kings, five Ephors (overseers) who have the power to depose a King if they have enough evidence. Plus a committee of elders (retired soldiers) who while they were voted in, it was a joke of an election because only friends of the Kings or other important people would come to power.

People seem to have such a love for democracy these days that you fail to realise that Kings worked for such a long time and during the reigns of good Kings the people were happy. People actually liked being ruled and if the King was a bad one they could revolt. Despite various slave revolts in Spartan history their government was more stable than any nation has ever been.

Spartans may have failed to spread their influence across all of Greece (despite the fact they managed to beat Athens in war) but they still managed to influence the Roman and and even British Empires.
 
Would the Celts BC spreading far and wide across what we now know as Europe be classed an an ancient empire? Their way of life has influenced almost all of the above mentioned empires in one way or another.
 
WarlikeMenelaos said:
True patriotism is another very noble thing, so is viewing everyone the age of your parents as your parents. Respect for those young and old, plus we shouldn't forget how 'free' women were in Spartan society compared to being practicly prisoners in their own houses in Athens..
True, they were patriots. They also were religious and sometimes these two qualities of theirs interefered with each other. Firstly, when religious celebrations prevented them to join Miltiades at Maraphon. It was the next day they arrived after their celebrations and they were not needed any more. The other happened when they let Leonidas go alone without any military support with only 300 guards of his own.:p And remember, o, Exalted King, how spartan feminine freedom resulted in war after that lying son of the gun, Alexander, or Paris, kidnapped thine Helena exposing thee as a royal cuckold! And remember, how many glorious men of Hellas died at the walls of Ilion because of that! So, is that praised freedom justified in thine eyes even thus far?;)

WarlikeMenelaos said:
Despite various slave revolts in Spartan history their government was more stable than any nation has ever been..
Aha, I remember declarations of war against ilots just to teach young Laconians to kill.:confused:
WarlikeMenelaos said:
Spartans may have failed to spread their influence across all of Greece (despite the fact they managed to beat Athens in war) but they still managed to influence the Roman and and even British Empires.
Yes, war was where spartans excelled. I will not also argue that they had certain values worth incorporation into our modern society. I even respect deeply their scorn for money... Here Spartans were better than we are now.:)
 
I agree with you that in some aspects Spartans were terrible and some aspects they were great.

lol, oh and about decietful Paris whose actions doomed sacred Ilion and the mighty Trojans, breaker of horses I have not a thing to say. His abduction of fair-haired Helen wrought much devestation of the strong-grieved Acheans and the children of Priam, but we must always defer to the will of Zeus, who delights in the thunder....

sorry, I got no idea what I'm saying now! The point is that many may have died but I managed to get back home with my wife!
 
WarlikeMenelaos said:
I agree with you that Egypt was an amazing civilisation although I absolutely hate Tutankhamen. He was nothing, the only reason we remember him is because his tomb wasn't robbed.

Sorry, I should have specified here. I am no great lover of Tutankhamen either, although I find the accounts of Howard Carter fascinating. I merely gave him credit because he is so well known, even among virtual illiterates.

You know, I think that the discovery of the pharoahs in Tunis by the French is a bigger discovery anyway.
 
Tutankamun was a brilliant discovery and a real key to the history of the Egyptian New Kingdom period - to denigrate Tutankamun is to denigrate one of the biggest moments in Egyptian archaeology.

Tutankamun may not have been a major figure in himself - but he was apparently the son Akhenaten, who is one of the most significant pharaoh's ever to reign in Egypt.
 
Yeah, he made the first attempt to impose monoteism in Ancient world...
And he had a beautiful wife, Nefertis.:rolleyes:
 
Yep - so Tutankamun was actually one of the more important links in chains of Ancient Egyptian history - how fortuitous it was that his tomb was found. :)
 
i would personally have to say, the Roman Empire. Mainly because they had a rise and fall in history, which they counced back on, their religion is still one of the most known and practiced and more knowledge is known about it.
 
I think it was the Empire from Star Wars. It was long ago and was a great success. No, only joking.:) I agree with Syn, the Roman Empire would most likely be the greatest empire that earth has ever had.
 
Not doubts, it was the Greek empire. No other civilisation that has ever existed has had as much impact on the world including the Roman's and British than the Greeks.
 
Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in this thread, though it was probably because I wanted to think about it thoroughly. I'll never get around to it though if I do that :D I'd probably have to go the Roman Empire, though there are definately several other contenders, especially from the Near East and Asia. I'll also add that the Romans actually aren't my favourite empire or peoples, but they're still the Empire I'll pick to argue here. I don't count Greece in that category though, simply because it wasn't it's empire that was great, long-lasting or influential, but it's culture. What do you count as the Greek Empire? The Pelopponnesian league? The Athenian Empire and Delian League? Alexander? There was never really a solid, unified 'Greek' Empire, and especially not one that lasted more than a couple of generations. I'll also make the point that though Alexander's Empire is deemed Hellenistic, and indeed he spread Hellenism throughout the world, He was not greek, and it fell apart once he died. greece remained so important and such a big part of western society because of the long term position it held in the mediterranean and the West as the epitome of culture. Long after Athens had lost its political power and empire it remained the centre of 'culture' with the Romans looking to it as the superior culture for many years. I argue Rome, especially against Greece, as it was not only huge and powerful (they basically re-established much [not all] of Alexander's Empire and then some), but long lasting. It was established around the 3rd or 2nd C BC (and I will argue this point against any other historian who wishes to argue a later date) and lasted until the 5thC AD in the West (and some may argue 1453 AD in the East with the sack of Constantinople) The Romans successfully created, and sometimes not so successfully maintained, their empire for a vast stretch of time. More than that, there was no other power in the west to truly rival them, economically or politically, for a good while. Other Empires can be argued to have lasted longer, Egypt perhaps, but not in any way comparable to the power and influence of Rome. On a side note, I'll also add that Christianity was not always the religion of the Roman Empire. It didn't become so until Constantine adopted it. The pan-mediterranean gods and goddesses dominated Roman culture and society before then.
 
sorry guys, i'd tried to space that post out for easier reading and emphasis on certain points, but for some reason it didn' work... :(
 
I think Roman Empire is the best for many reasons. Unlike many other Empires, it makes a synthesis of the cultures of the ancient world and act as a limit between antiquity and modern days in the fields of warfare, policy, religion...

No other empires done that in the way the Roman Empire did.
 
I'm a little unclear on what the term Great is supposed to mean?

However if we're defining Great in terms of the best established and most efficiently run Empire I'll go for the Romans.

For the most significant certainly on western culture I'll vote for the Greeks.
 
I'd go for the Greeks as well, mainly because they 'build democracy'. (If I'm correct, history never was my best course).
 
GOLLUM said:
I'm a little unclear on what the term Great is supposed to mean?

However if we're defining Great in terms of the best established and most efficiently run Empire I'll go for the Romans.

For the most significant certainly on western culture I'll vote for the Greeks.

same here. The greek had constant quarrels. I'd prefer the Roman empire before the dividing into East and west...
 

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