Ancient contributions to the modern world?

Question

I'm just curious to see what other people think. In terms of the biggest contributions to the world we live in, which civilization do you think made the largest impact and why?

Rome

Greece

Persia

Egypt

The Celts

China

The Maya

Native Americans

If you feel that I have left some out feel free to make an addition.

Answer 1

You would think Greece from what you hear and see, but I think you are being fooled.

I think it is the Romans.  They didn't really invent anything, but more importantly they were the best at adapting what you had to fit their needs.  

We try to speak latin today, but the Romans spoke Greek!  They didn't even have a navy when they went to war with Carthage, (it is said that the Romans had to pay tribute to Carthage to wash their hads in the sea) and didn't even know how to build a ship! (there is an of fable about them finding a perfectly good warship washed up on a beach but...) By the end of the 1st Punic War they were an great naval power even though they hated water.  Everything about them they got from someone else and I think it is that legacy of adaption that they passed on that has made Europeans dominent in the world.  It also helps that their religion, the Church of Rome is probably the largest in over half of the areas you named today and has a presence in all the others.

Answer 2

The Greeks gave us science.  The eqyptians gave us medicine.  The Romans adopted all of the sciences they found.  The Maya Gave us the most exact time table.

Answer 3

Rome and Greece undoubtedly profoundly influenced philosophical currents of the so called "western world", Egyptians were without any doubt the greatest builders of the ancient world... about others I don't know much, but I guess every civilization contributed its part of knowledge to the legacy of the human kind !