Which civilization was the equivalent of America in the ancient world?

I answered this on Quora.

Very interesting question. There are several levels that this can be analyzed. The US today is a large pluralistic society and a constitutional republic. It has a separation of powers with many of institutions operating along democratic lines at the local, state and federal level. Its value system is based on the fusion of Greek Rationalism, Scottish Enlightenment Empiricism and Judeo-Christian Ethics. Economically the US pivots around a Free Market systems with various public sector and government checks. When suffused these attributes acting as one make it a rather unique continuous experiment in the history of our species.

Having said that its still worthwhile drawing comparisons certainly in the realm of international footprint, the will to power and cultural influence. With this in mind I would argue that Four Civilizations bear somewhat of a comparison.

a. Ancient Egypt - Dominated North Africa and influenced much of the politics of the Levant (although to a lesser extent) prior to the birth of Christ. Together with Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, can be seen as one of the primordial driver of the early Western Civilization.

b. Ancient Greece - Its city state model existing within a broader civilization model is roughly equivalent to the State-Federal model that defines the US (although I agree that such an analogy has problems…it was no way near as centralized until at least the era of Alexander the Great). However it impacted a great deal of the Mediterranean and existed as a bulwark to the civilizations of the East. Its intellectual accomplishments and cultural reach certainly resonate in parallel with the US.

c. Ancient Rome - The early Republic had a remarkably similar structure to the US (this is no coincidence of course as the Founding Fathers of the US were greatly influenced by Rome) and while Empire would dominate the later civilization, Rome’s capacity to exert its strength over an extremely broad platform made it a legitimate superpower for its age. At the height of its prowess it was also largely unrivaled on a military level and greatly dictated matters that defined the ancient economies of its realm.

d. Achaemenid Persia - Persia, prior to the Greek resurgence, was the Near East’s sole superpower. Like the US it was extremely tolerant of a variety of beliefs and expanded to include a smorgasbord of metaphysical nesting in a framework of tolerance.

However even after looking at all four of these (and putting aside such obvious distinctions as monarchy and rule by tyrants) I would argue that the US is furthermore distinct. Unlike these other powers the American Republic is not primarily driven by a continuous need to force an Imperialistic agenda beyond the bedrock nation state. Its tendency is to turn away not embrace Empire and although its foreign policy has been influenced by economic considerations it is not by nature a power of occupation. Certainly not in the long run. The same cannot be said for all the other Ancient Power Civilizations.