An Assyrian king recorded feeding 69,574 guests at a ten-day banquet.

Evidence

Ashur Nasirpal II was a man of kindlier disposition, and he describes in great detail a banquet which lasted ten days, with food and drink for 69,574 invited guests, both men and—remarkably—women. The food served is specified and enumerated in this inscription, in very great detail; so many head of cattle, cows, sheep, lambs, stags, gazelles, ducks, geese, pigeons and other birds, fish, eggs, bread, vegetables, fruits, nuts, condiments, and spices, and also 10,000 kegs of beer and 10,000 skins of wine. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 236

Categorization

• SHARE: A Mesopotamia-history friend would savor this concrete detail of Assyrian royal scale and hospitality economics.