How ancient? I love Japanese History as well. One of my fondest books is Taiko, by Eiji Yoshikawa. Traces the rise of "the Second Unifier," Hideyoshi, after the rise and fall of Oda Nobunaga. As I practice both Aikido and iaido, the history of Japanese martial lineages is of particular interest.
Hello All, After seeing this thread i feel that you don't know much more about india. I am not writing cause i think india is number one but cause i love it. Hu Shih (Former Chinese Ambassador to USA): "India conquered and dominated China for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across its border." (Bhavan Journal 15.05.1999) Swami Vivekananda, Indian Philosopher: "Civilizations have arisen in other parts of the world. In ancient and modern times, wonderful ideas have been carried forward from one race to another...But mark you, my friends, it has been always with the blast of war trumpets and the march of embattled cohorts. Each idea had to be soaked in a deluge of blood..... Each word of power had to be followed by the groans of millions, by the wails of orphans, by the tears of widows. This, many other nations have taught; but India for thousands of years peacefully existed. Here activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist... Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live....!" you can read more on this page http://factsindia.com/content/view/120/32/
Oops, forgot about this thread. But anyways, yeah, wow, the Romans. Quite possibly the most influential civilization that ever existed. Brilliant as hell in just about every area, from war to civilization to engineering. I also spent a whole year studying their history and Gods. One day, I really want to travel to Italy and spend a good month to two just taking it all in. It would be an awesome trip. I could just look around those ruins for months and be in Heaven.
I've heard about that novel, plus the script that was written and was supposed to get made into a movie but never did. I must have read about Leonidas and the 300 Spartans about 100 times from 100 different sources and I find it amazingly fascinating every time! For the comic book collector here, take a look at Frank Miller's "300" limited series. They're shooting the movie version right now!
It's funny, but the more you learn about the Spartans, the more complex they become. You usually think of them as the ultimate Greek fighters, and they had slaves made up of conquered people, but they were also the first to basically treat their women like equals. But of course you're right. The Greeks basically invented the concept of democracy, so thanks, Greeks!
Most of these ancient cultures were pretty brutal. (See how much more civilized we are today?) The Mayan's used to play this basketball type game with peoples heads.
It's all relative. I'm sure people 500 years from now will look back at us and our many wars (my God, just look at the human suffering in Africa alone in the last 10 years) and think we were a bunch of savages as well.
I was being sarcastic about us being more civilized... but at least we don't play basketball with peoples heads. I'd be surprised if people are still around in 500 years.
I am Chinese!! I think if you come to China, you will love China. The Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses...
8)others -> Atlantic Civilization! If you read ancient secret texts, the atlanteans sank their island and migrated to countries such as Egypt. They are the inventors of the pyramids and all the holiness of Egypt.
Egypt, hands down... where else are you gonna find slaves that build crazy huge monuments for you while you sit and eat fruit all day and laugh and play games... oh wait... Sorry GEORGE BUSH
The Aryan absolutely. Why Aryan? There is West Aryan (German, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein), Indian Aryan (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and East Aryan (China, Thailand, Tibet, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore)