Ashurbanipal (Assyria)

Ashurbanipal ruled Assyria at its greatest extent, briefly conquering Egypt itself, and was unusual among kings in being literate and a serious collector of texts. His library at Nineveh preserved tens of thousands of tablets, including the fullest surviving copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh, recovered in the 1850s. Judah under Manasseh was a submissive vassal throughout his reign. Within two decades of his death the Assyrian empire collapsed entirely, opening the way for Josiah's reforms and territorial expansion.