It was reasonably common in the ancient (Mediterranean) world iirc, so I guess there was some understanding or expectation around it from creditors. I think the

It was reasonably common in the ancient (Mediterranean) world iirc, so I guess there was some understanding or expectation around it from creditors. I think they didn’t really have bankruptcy and debts were inherited so this was the only way for them to be reset. I think there was also a story about Julius Caesar preventing a popular debt-resetting by himself taking on an enormous debt and then arguing that as Rome’s most indebted citizen, he would benefit the most and so it wouldn’t be fair for himself to forgive all debts and thereby his own.