Other related topics at: Peoples and Places 9. Corruption; Rome "I know not why any one but a school-boy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another. [...] A people, who while they were poor robbed mankind; and as soon as they became rich, robbed one another." Johnson: Review of Thomas Blackwell's "Memoirs of the Court of Augustus" Link