Probably not. Mars doesn't have plate tectonics, and volcanic activity is low. The only forces acting on the planet that are strong enough to cause major erosion are wind loaded with dust, snow (at the poles) and occasionally flowing water, when it does occur. Any cities would still have had remnants around today that we would have seen with orbiters. If you mean intelligent but non tool using, I guess its possible. But Mars was only "not a desert" for about a billion years before becoming something pretty close to its modern self. Complex life on Earth took about 3 billion years to evolve. Any life on Mars is likely to microbial for that reason alone.