In your opinion, what civilizations that are more advanced than the Romans? My buddy said Romans are more sophisticated in terms of military organization, law and political administration and the Chinese only faced mainly just barbarian nomads, whereas the Roman Empire was extremely diverse and Roman armies faced strong enemy armies such as those of Parthia and Dacia. Thoughts?
The problem is all of our written records come from Greek or Roman sources, who were completely in belief of their superiority over all others. This has always skewed scholarly work to favor them. As well, no one, except the Egyptians, really came close to the monumental architecture of the Greeks and Romans, so these constant visible reminders also skew our judgement of them. I am a Romanophile, but it very hard to argue they weren't an extremely warlike, viscous people.
To more directly answer your question, I wouldn't use the word more as it is all subjective, however:
Cathage, Greece and the Successor states (The Diadochi) were is many ways just as sophisticated as Rome. Carthage almost defeated Rome in a the second Punic War, but it was Rome's ability to withstand losses that would have caused most nations to sue for peace that allowed them eventual victory. Some may argue the same for the wars with the Teutons and Cimbri.
Greece was past its prime as a military force and was ruled by the Diadochi. When Rome finally came into conflict with the Diadochi they had spent the last 150 years fighting each other. They had become more and more intrenched in their own way of fighting and had become less flexible, but by all hallmarks of civilization were quite equal to Rome.
In terms if technology, the Gauls were regarded as better metallurgists than the Romans, the famous Roman sword, the
gladius hispaniensis, was copied from the Celt-Iberian "Barbarians", and not until after she was already by the far the largest empire in the West.
After the defeat of these enemies, all before 90 BC, the remaining threats to Rome were either too fragmented, like the Germanic tribes or , or only regional, like the Parthians/Sassinids or the Caledonians.
As for Dacia, she was rich, fairly advanced, although behind the Romans, particularly in monumental architecture, but to see if Dacia had a chance, look at the two empire on a map.
The Roman Republic's (almost of its conquests were before it became an empire) political structure made it a great conqueror. Because it was an oligarchy, it could have failure, and dispose the leader, while the state remained intact. It's system rewarded leaders who had great military victories and gave them the resources of the state to do so, created a mentality of conquest for the sake of personal glory, using state funds. This and it's ability to suffer tremendous casualties, as well as tactical innovations, allowed it to grow to empire. It just didn't have the massive gap against its enemies that pop culture proliferates until AFTER it had most of its conquests. That advantage, once they had it, would allow it to last 400 years.
