I'd really have to say the Nabateans, with Egypt as a close second. In Egypt men and women were equal(for the most part), writing played a huge part in their daily lives and their religions system was so advanced and complex that, arguably, the first clearly defined, non natural(in the since that the religion was changed consciously and not by simply changing over time as people spread out) religious schism occurred within it when Akhenaten promoted monotheism to the sun god.
But, I'd still have to hold them second to the Nabateans. Each of Egypt's capital cities was conquered innumerable times by countless peoples. Petra, the capital of the Nabateans, on the other hand was never conquered due to the way the ancient Arabs built the city in seamless harmony with the land around it. It was enclosed and protected so well by the landscape that, even in modern times, it took a long time to find. They would, of course surrender to the Romans, since they couldn't hope to fight their massive army, but when they did it was on their terms.
Also, the Greeks are jerks. The story of the Odyssey changed Greek culture for the worst and made them think less of women as a culture, which wouldn't have been so bad if their culture hadn't been the most influential one on the western world, which led to the sexism against women being upheld(in far smaller part) to this day. I personally feel that the world would be better off had the Persians completely won their wars against Greece and annexed it. I they had, Macedon wouldn't have been independent for Alexander to rise and the Achaemenid empire(which IRL lasted an extraordinarily long time) might've lasted for hundreds of years more! Then we might be having this conversation about Persia and Carthage, rather than Rome and Greece.
