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December 26, 2023

I used to debate one of my high school teachers about culture. As a fan of Rome, I posited it was the greatest and most consequential civilization in human history. He queried me about why. It’s laws, its size, its economy, its longevity? I suggested the clearest proof was the fact that there may be more Roman ruins remaining than from any ancient civilization in the world.

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He disagreed, believing there were African empires whose cultures were equal if not superior to Rome’s, the grandest of such being the Mali Empire in West Africa. Lasting from 1226 to 1670, its greatest king was Mansa Musa, who is sometimes said to be the richest man who ever lived.

He pressed me on others, stating that architecture and its survival might not be the best measure by which to measure a culture’s greatness.

Wondering if he might be right, I looked a bit more into some of those other societies about which I knew less than Rome. There were the Incas, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, the Qin and Han Chinese, the Mongols, the Abbasid and Umayyad Caliphates, and the aforementioned Malian Empire. All were fascinating.

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The Mongols had the largest landlocked empire in history but left very little in the way of architecture. There were the Qun and Han dynasties that controlled a quarter of the world’s population some 2000 years ago and built the longest sections of China’s Great Wall. The Abbasid caliphate, which is considered the Islamic Golden Age, was considered to be the most advanced society of its time in reference to things like science, astronomy, math, and medicine. The Egyptians not only left the Pyramids and Abu Simbel, but their papyrus was the earliest known paper. The Median and Achaemenid Empires preceding modern-day Iran left extraordinary ruins that go back 500 years before Christ.

Image of a man walking away from the ruins of the West by Vince Coyner.

Depending on how one wants to characterize them, there have been thousands of cultures, civilizations, and dynasties throughout human history. As much as we might know about them, it’s likely there are even more about which we know nothing. Which brings me back to my original point: How does one measure what a great culture is? Is it the language they left, the ruins they left, or how much of the earth or her population that the culture controlled?

It’s possible to make an argument for any one of those, but the reality is that, given the differences in time, geography, and populations, it’s impossible to draw a hierarchical chart that defines “Greatness” with precision, particularly given the differences in what’s left of them.

Nonetheless, I stand by the opinion of my 15-year-old self about Rome being the greatest civilization of the ancient world.

That being said, there’s nothing in the ancient world to compare with what we have in the 21st century, a world that stands on the shoulders of Western culture. Given how the West is committing cultural suicide, it might be helpful to examine what that Western culture has produced.

Yes, the West has been cruel and barbaric at times, whether to its own people or because it sanctioned slavery and resulted in the bloodshed of native peoples in far-off lands. All those things are true. But none of them are unique to the West. Depravity is a mark that mankind shares across civilizations and has been constant from one degree or another across the space and time of human existence.