Straightforward: What is your favorite Civilization or Culture?
Why is it your favorite? Why do you like it (or them)?
I’m not going to reduce the question to semantics, you can search for definitions of Civilization or Culture in so many places.
Mine is the Roman one, they excelled at many things (minus industrialization and other things, hmm, coughing, hmm, slavery, at least compared to post renaissance Civilizations), they were like China of the West, they copied from all their enemies, they innovated, especially in terms of combat and military organization.
Their Empire (even before they had an Emperor) was huge, at it’s peak it stretched from Britain to Irak, had many cultures and languages, it wasn’t racist (just to add this, since it’s a very popular subject in the media, mostly in the United States and in a few other countries), like at all (it indulged in slavery though, but it was the norm back then), the romans always tried to romanize the conquered people, to assimilate them into their Empire, they spread literacy, culture, roads, commerce, urbanization and architectural wonders everywhere they went (hmm conquered), …, among the cities that they built (they built many cities) are London (Londinium), Paris (Lutetia), Wien (Vindobona), Barcelona ( Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino), York (Eboracum), …, anyway, later came their fall, in 2 historical moments, 476 A.D. for the Western Rome (the Empire was split at some point, to make it easier to manage it) and 1453 for the Eastern Empire (later named/renamed Byzantine Empire by historians) …
It would be absurd to add more details to the list, study about Rome if you want to know about it’s great civilization.
I should add this: the European countries that are still existent today are a result of a long and bloody history, but for historical purposes, I would say that the “Big Daddy” of Europe or it’s Great Ancestor (in terms of culture, law, religion, politics and military organization, among many things) was Rome (although there were other Great Ancestors, including The Ancient Greeks, The Germanic Tribes, The Celts, The Slavic Tribes and The Thracians).
EDIT: Among the things they left behind, their Legacy includes: Romance Languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, among others; although English is a Germanic Language, over 50% of English words are of Latin origin, mostly through French borrowings), Architecture (Neoclassical one is inspired from Greco-Roman architecture), Modern Law ( “Modern civil law systems essentially derive from legal codes issued by Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century” - quote from Wikipedia), Christianity (it spread from the Roman Province of Judea to the entire Roman Empire and later to the many places of the World: The Pope, also known as Pontifex Maximus still rules from Rome, well from Vatican, to be precise) and many other things, including Citizenship and People, whose ancestors were romans (all free residents of the Roman Empire were given citizenship by/with the decree of Emperor Caracalla).
That’s enough info for today!
EDIT/just to add this as well: The Senate and The Republic are Roman in origin as well, The “Official Name” of Rome was SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS - THE SENATE AND THE PEOPLE OF ROME; today the vast majority of Nations are Republics; To quote from worldatlas(dot)com "Latin is an alphabet type of script and the most widely used in the world. Around 4.9 billion people or 70% of the global population relies on this alphabet, which generally consists of an average of 26 letters, to write a range of languages. This script originated in present-day Italy and has since spread around the world with the help of several historic events, most notably: the Roman Empire, Christianity, and European colonization. "