Status Updates From SPQR: een geschiedenis van ...

“For several Roman observers, senatorial weakness for bribery was one major factor behind their failure: ‘Rome’s a city for sale and bound to fall as soon as it finds a buyer’, as Jugurtha [a rebellious North African ruler] was supposed to have quipped when he left the city.”

This was about 80 years before the Republic ended. This has no relevance to our current situation.

god this is dense