whoa at a sharp turn the wheels of the chariots hit each other they fly up and land uh-oh the chariot driver nearly fell to the sand covering the floor of the arena he held on just in time and continued the race eleven laps of the crazy race are left behind wheels smashed carts flipped over and horses stumble the final lap is ahead twelve chariots started the race only two remain the show must go on the athletes are exhausted but they fly towards victory and masterfully control six wild horses they reach the home stretch one of the cherry drivers rushes forward and crosses the finish line first the emperor of rome is pleased the two hundred thousand spectators give the winner a thunderous round of applause thousands of people are repeating the name diocles diocles diacles well that was fun the writer's full name is gaius apolias diocles he's won 1500 races in his career he's a real star the only chariot driver with more fans is the emperor himself diocles is difficult to overtake not only on the race course but also in the financial sense he's the richest athlete in history if diocles lived in our time his accounts would be full to bursting at an incredible 15 billion dollars michael jordan is the richest athlete of our time and doesn't even come close the basketball player has 2.1 billion dollars less than a seventh of diocles fortune but hey 2.1 billion ain't bad diocles was so rich that he owned two and a half tons of gold what else is there to do with your money if you're the wealthiest athlete on the planet well with his yearly income diocles could feed the entire population of the empire's capital city for a year and at that time at least 450 000 people lived in the city even if we combined the wealth of today's 50 richest athletes they wouldn't overtake diocletes he's the absolute champion and it's unlikely that any athlete will ever surpass his fortune currently inventor and entrepreneur elon musk is the richest person on the planet his net worth is estimated to be around 203 billion dollars but elon musk isn't anywhere near the wealthiest person in history the richest person of all time is the chinese emperor shenzhong of song counting his wealth is almost impossible modern economists believe that the shenzhong of song controlled 30 percent of the world's wealth the emperor's capital is estimated at 30 trillion dollars the rulers of ancient china knew how to spend money they spent 95 billion dollars building the great wall with that money you could build 2 317 empire state buildings the roman empire controlled the entire mediterranean and augustus caesar was its wealthiest ruler he owned one-fifth of all the property of the empire modern economists value his net worth at more than 4.6 trillion dollars [Music] now there are expensive yachts there are super expensive yachts and then there's the history supreme the boat is only 100 feet long but adorned with 10 tons of gold and platinum the ship is worth a ridiculous 4.8 billion dollars hope it doesn't sink the cabins are decorated with a gold aquarium diamonds meteorite shards and even the bones of a tyrannosaurus rex by comparison the most expensive private jet the airbus a380 cost 500 million dollars if king mansa musa the first lived in our time then his money would be enough to buy 80 history supremes if he buys himself a gold fleet then 16 billion dollars remain in his wallet the king's wealth was estimated at 400 billion dollars mansa musa the first ruled the african country of mali during the middle ages and he got rich from the extraction of gold and salt which was very valuable in the past when you're worried about running over your budget in a restaurant think of king manson when he decided to go on vacation he was accompanied by 80 000 people he took 13 tons of gold for travel expenses apparently he was also a big tipper he spent so much when he was on these travels that he devalued gold this led to the collapse of the entire mediterranean economy the richest woman of our time is francois bettencourt myers she's worth 72 billion dollars but there's a woman in history who earned even more if the queen of egypt cleopatra came to our time she would be worth a staggering 100 billion dollars this would make her the fifth richest person on the planet she would even overtake mark zuckerberg and warren buffett cleopatra received a percentage of the sale of all goods sold inside egypt and controlled the production of wheat papyrus and glass because of this some scholars believe that cleopatra's net worth might have actually been far higher the most generous estimates have her valued at four times what we initially thought at 400 billion dollars that would make the former queen of egypt over twice as rich as elon musk pharaoh khufu of egypt funded one of the most expensive constructions of all time the pyramids the ancient egyptians didn't have access to the powerful trucks excavators and cranes that we have today so the build was even more expensive the great pyramid of giza was the biggest of the pyramids and was the tallest structure on the planet for 4 000 years it is 150 feet taller than the statue of liberty and is made of around 2.3 billion blocks each weighing as much as an average car if you want to repeat the egyptians fee then prepare to pony up about two and a half billion dollars which was no problem for pharaoh khufu the gold mines in the nubian desert were the ruler of egypt's primary source of income they made him so much money that he was the richest person of his era the richest king of our times lives in thailand he has 34 billion dollars at his disposal king william the first of england was seven times richer according to the calculations of modern economists there was 230 billion dollars in his treasury twelve monarchies survived in europe the luxembourg dukes are the richest remaining royal family this may be surprising given that luxembourg is so small the entire country is the same size as orange county california the grand duke's wealth is estimated to be around four billion dollars that's enough to build a pyramid but he doesn't have enough money for the most expensive yacht it's easy to become wealthy if you're a king or a pharaoh but ordinary people can rise to the top of the wealth charts too jacob feuger was born in germany in the 16th century to a family of weavers since childhood jacob studied accounting when mr fuger grew up he became a banker a few years later he became the wealthiest human of his time he was just very good at counting money even european kings borrowed money from fugure according to the documents of that time it's known that his fortune was estimated at two million gilders today it's four hundred billion dollars john davidson rockefeller created standard oil which controlled ninety percent of the us oil market thanks to this the entrepreneur came the first dollar billionaire in the history of the country by 1918 rockefeller's capital was estimated at 1.5 billion dollars today this amount is equivalent to 400 billion not bad for the son of a lumberjack rockefeller's main rival in terms of wealth is andrew carnegie he was involved in the production and sale of steel and earned 370 billion dollars he spent a considerable portion of that fortune on charity 100 years ago there was no internet and books were the main source of information with his own money carnegie built 2 500 public libraries in the u.s and around the world what's that they say leaders our readers seem so the taj mahal is one of the most popular tourist sites in india the complex was built in the 17th century by order of the emperor shah jahan today such construction would cost 960 million dollars shah jahan is considered the richest indian in history but that's not accurate osman ali khan ruled one of the indian principalities from 1911 to 1948 in 1937 he was named the richest person on the planet by modern standards he had 236 billion dollars ali khan built roads open universities and love science he also loved rolls-royce and gems there were 50 cars in his garage and his collection of diamonds and rubies were worth 400 million dollars today new york and hong kong are home to the most billionaires there are 92 in the big apple and 71 in hong kong but this wasn't always the case nowadays venice is a popular tourist destination in italy but during the renaissance this city was the world's financial capital it controlled trade throughout the mediterranean and many of the wealthiest people in the world lived there