Ashoka
A conqueror publicly repents and changes course
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Ashoka's edicts are the oldest datable Indian texts we can read, and without parallel in world history: no other ruler has published his own shame. They were unreadable for a thousand years until the script was deciphered in 1837, and Ashoka rediscovered. He sent Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka and beyond — the reason Buddhism became a world religion. His lion capital is India's state emblem.
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Ashoka conquered nearly all of India. After a bloody campaign in which hundreds of thousands died, he wrote that he repented — and carved that repentance into rocks and pillars across his empire. He then spent the rest of his reign on hospitals, wells and roads.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org