Rome made almost no contributions to science. They made quite a few advances in technology, though. I can't recall too many advances claimed by the Hebrews. Between the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians, it's a tough contest. There is no doubt that both civilizations advanced mathematics, astronomy, and engineering tremendously. Quite a few of the advances attributed to Egypt took place during the reign of the Ptolemies, though, and I am not sure those should properly be considered ancient Egyptian. So I am going to go with Greece. Honorable mention to the Islamic world during the Middle Ages.

I think the Romans contributed the most, hands down. Roman science was based on materials technology and building methods that spanned europe. They were empiricists and discarded what didn't work. The Greeks had many mostly wrong ideas about how the world works. They made great contributions to geometry and philosophy but had a lot of woo-woo notions about atoms and essences. Didn't help Einstein a bit. The Romans studied it all and preserved the teaching of what they found useful. You could say that the Romans made the Greeks look good. They trashed a lot of woo-woo. The Roman Engineers did physics (largely mechanics) while Greek philosophers did metaphysics (mostly arguments). A lot of credit should go to the Arabs for brilliant scholarship, chemistry, medicine, and saving translations that would otherwise have been lost. Jewish individuals made breakthrough contributions to all of the above. And Egyptians deserve the beer vote. But Latin was the most important language in the history of science by a clear margin, the western church notwithstanding.

Who invented Calculus? The western books say that Newton invented Calculus. You can see the Sanskrit mathematics texts which were written many centuries before Newton that they contain Calculus. For that matter, who invented numbers? The Indians. The ancient Romans did not know the number zero. Ancient Indians knew very large numbers like Mahogham (1 followed by 62 zeros) and the corresponding smaller decimal fractions. Who invented Nuclear Physics? Buddhist teacher Pakudha Katyayana taught atomic theory. Maharshi Kanaada of 3rd century, B.C. wrote atomic theory in Vaiseshika Sutras. Agni Purana gives smaller magnitudes. The smallest of them is called Paramaanu which nearly equals one billionth part of a meter. This value tallies with the size of an organic molecule calculated by the western scientists. In the ancient Sanskrit text named Anu Sidhdhantam, Maharshi Goutama described three models of micro-scopes through which atoms can be seen. Who were the first to calculate the velocity of light? The Rig Veda Bhashyam by Sayana Madhava gives the following Sloka praising the Sun: Yojanam sahasre dve, satadve, dvecha yojane Ekena nimeshardhena kramamaana namosthuthe One Yojana equals 15788.8 meters, and half of Nimesha equals 8/75 fraction of a second. This gives the velocity of light as 325940 km/s. We have to remember here that the above value is an approximate one intended for easy remembrance, like remembering the value of pi as 22/7. It is better than the the value 215000 km/s given by Danish astronomer Ole Roemer in 1676. Who invented the guns? Some people in medieval Europe heard of powerful fire weapons of the India. Marco Polo (in 13th century) was financed by the king of his country with the specific purpose of finding the secret of the Indian fire weapons. The first war between the Indians and the British took place at Mysore during reign of Hyder Ali. The casualties on the British side was 90 percent and those on the Indian side was 10 percent. The British realized that their weapons were inferior to those used by the Indians. The Indians had rockets and missiles in addition to guns and cannons. Who invented the ships? Europe has only soft wood trees. The ships made of those woods are good for sailing the Mediterranean or a smaller sea. They are no good for sailing on the oceans. The ship of Vasco de Gama was about to collapse when it reached India. It is the Indian marine engineers who repaired that ship and made it worthy again for sea travel. Which country has the trees that provide the hardest wood? India. The Sanskrit name for deodar tree was Deva Tharu, the tree that gives the best wood; it is native to India. Other hard woods like teak and mahogany are also native to India. Rig Veda mentions ships with 100 oars. Such ships sailed over seven oceans and returned to India. Visitors to India from Greece and Rome during the pre-Christian times wrote that the Brahmins of India knew that the earth is in the form of a globe and one can reach the same place after sailing through the seven oceans. The Buddhist Jataka stories wrote about large Indian ships carrying seven hundred people. Who invented steel? The Rig Veda mentions about steel. Evidence for the manufacture of steel in ancient times is available in South India. The Arabians used to make a lot of money by selling Indian steel ingots to Europe. In 1746, the queen of Britain had sent a scientist named Benjamin Hauntsman to India to obtain the secret of making steel. Who invented the aircraft? India had many ancient Sanskrit texts on aeronautics. The Yantra Sarvaswa of Maharshi Bharadwaja, Vimaana Chandrika of Maharshi Narayan, Vyoma Yaana Tantra of Sounaka, and Vyoma Yaanarka of Dandi Natha are some of them. They contained topics like Maargadhi Karana (Navigation and control of speed during flight), Lohaadhi Karana (alloys used for various components of the aircraft) and Saktyaadhi Karana (production and usage of various fuels used in aircrafts). Para Sabda Grahakata is a subject of monitoring the flight tracks of aircrafts, navigatory communication system, and monitoring the conversation of the pilots in the aircrafts. In 1895, Sivasankar Thalpad of Bombay had constructed an aircraft which flew to an altitude of 1500 feet. He was a Vedic scholar and used to teach at the J.J. School of Arts. He obtained the technology from some rare Sanskrit manuscripts. He also wrote a book in Marathi named Praacheena Vimaana Vidye Chaasodha. Lalaji Rayanji, Maharaja of Baroda, was one of the many witnesses who had seen the flying of that aircraft. After the untimely death of Prof.Thalpad, his legal heirs sold all his scripts and materials to the British. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimana Who invented powder metallurgy? The Indians. The iron pillar in Delhi which does not get rust even today is the proof for it. It is not the only one of its kind; there are many more scattered through out in India. The Russians who took scrapings from the pillar confirmed that it is made using powder metallurgy technology. The so called space-age technology of today can make only small pieces using powder metallurgy; they are generally used as tips in cutting tools. How could our ancients make such a big pillar using powder metallurgy? The pillar is like a time capsule - it is challenging the world. Can we rise to the pinnacles of achievement to which our ancients had reached? Who invented nuclear weapons? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bramhastra Who invented plastic surgery? The Indians. It is fully described by Maharshi Susruta, the ancient Ayurvedic surgeon, in his Samhita. Who invented acupuncture? The Indians. Who invented the martial arts? The Indians. Who invented the remote sensing and imaging techniques? The Indians. Who discovered Advanced Astrology? The Indians. Who discovered Advanced Astronomy? The Indians. Who discovered Groundwater Hydrology? The Indians. We can read Brihat Samhita of Varaha Mihira; the Indian method is better than the modern techniques of using space satellites. Who were the first to construct planned cities with high technology infrastructures for water supply and sewerage? The Indians. Who invented the hanging bridges? The Indians. Chinese who visited India a few thousands of years ago wrote about our hanging bridges which used steel beams and steel ropes. Who discovered higher philosophy? The Indians. We all know that light travels faster than electron current. When they use laser flows instead of electron flow using Raman Effect discovered by Sir C.V.Raman, Nobel Laureate, the next big revolution in making computers will take place. Some researchers in U.S.A. are already working in this line. The next drawback in a computer is that the Numeric Co-Processor in the C.P.U. works according to arithmetic logic. We know that the result of multiplying an eight digit number with another eight digit number cannot be obtained in one step. But ancient India knows a very unique method which gives this answer in one step - the Vedic mathematics. If the Numeric Co-Processor was to be designed using Vedic mathematics, each personal computer will work like a super computer even with the present day computer hardware. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_mathematics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_ancient_India http://doctorprasad.blog.com/ Among all countries in the world, India has inherited the largest number of ancient manuscripts from time immemorial. They were written on the widest range of subjects known to humans. Indians have travelled around the world in ships to spread their knowledge since millenia. The oldest universities of the world like Patali Putra and Taksha Sila are located in India. Scholars from far east and Europe came here for higher knowledge. "The oldest University of the world was founded at Taxila, where taught the great grammarian Panini." http://ccc.1asphost.com/hamidsaeed/darood/HIST-PAKISTAN.htm

Ancient egypt was the VERY FIRST EMPIRE of a civilization, then came the greeks, then the romans, and then the middle easterners and europeans and middle eastereners and then the europeans again. So since it all started with egypt, they get my vote. And besides, calculus couldnt have been invented if the concept of math didnt exist... egypt made math.

The "Persian Civilization" goes back to 3000 years ago, they had a great contribution to development of Science and Technology. They built their Empire on the Iranian Plateau and Mesopotamia where their people had a 10000 years old history, those people started settlement and created humanized societies, they are the first inventors from a scientific aspect. But in fact the science has progressed by interactions and relations of different civilizations during the course of Human History which dates from hundreds of thousand years ago, even wars were causes of development rather than destruction. So literally we cannot say who exactly had the most contribution to Science as we know it today. We should never forget that even Human is part of Nature and a product of evolution - that is still ongoing - the matter is far more sophisticated that we attribute the progress of Science to any particular group of people or ethnicity, it's us, "Humans".

All made their mark on Western Civilisation. It was a cumulative effort and each of these afected different areas of Western culture. The Greeks worked on Maths, but had learnt a lot from the Persians and Egyptians. The Greeks and the Romans were incredible builders, but, once again, learnt things from the Egyptians. The Hebrews learnt their architectural skills from Egypt, but shone in the area of hygeine and medicine. Together with the Greek contribution to this area, modern medicine came into being.