Civilizations

[Heraclius]

I would have to say the early Sumerians. Sure, they may not have had the greatest society or the most stable governments, but they were the first. They were the first to have a writen language, Cuniform. Hammurabi created the world's first law code. They had the first walled cities, the first structured armies, the first stable city governments... the first empires!

I'd say that by being the first ones, the ancient Mesopitamians have eliminated much of the gravity of their faults, because they were the first to even try, and they certainly didn't fail miserably either!