1. Potentially the wealthiest man in history and the first trillionaire, according to biblical sources, King Solomon amassed a gigantic fortune during his 39-year reign as King of Israel.
Solomon, also known as Jedidiah, is a biblical King of Israel believed to have reigned between 970 and 931 BCE. The son of King David, and the third king of the United Monarchy, Solomon, per his father’s instructions, initiated his reign at the age of fifteen with a political purge to consolidate his position. Expanding his military strength, Solomon is credited with the creation of favorable trade relations with neighboring nations, in particular, the Phoenicians. Following his death, the United Monarchy quickly dissipated, with the Israelites splitting between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah.
Regarded as the wealthiest of the Israelite kings that appear in the Bible, multiple stories make reference to the vast fortune of Solomon. Using this wealth to build the First Temple, treasure hunters have spent centuries attempting to relocate his horde, believed to have been lost during the Babylonian capture of Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE. According to the Book of Kings, Solomon received as much as twenty-five tons of gold in tribute in each of his thirty-nine years in power, in addition to general taxation. Using modern projections, historians have calculated that, if such claims are indeed true, Solomon would have enjoyed an equivalent net worth of $2,200,000,000,000.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
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