Mind-Benders of Mesopotamian History
An emperor who bragged he could read
Ashurbanipal, who ruled the vast Neo-Assyrian empire from about 668 BCE, boasted in his own royal inscriptions that he was fully literate — able to read difficult Sumerian and Akkadian and to work through complicated mathematical problems. Personal literacy was rare among ancient kings, and he treated his scribal skill as a point of royal pride.
How we know
Ashurbanipal acceded c. 668 BCE (reigned c. 668–627 BCE); his literacy boasts (reading recondite Sumerian and Akkadian, solving complex mathematical problems) are attested in his own Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.