Corruption When we look at what is going on today, we see so many corrupt politicians. The problem was recently highlighted by the governor of New York being forced to resign. This is not just a new problem as there have been corrupt politicians and corrupt monarchs since man has been on this planet. One very powerful family in Ancient Greece decided after an earthquake which damaged the temple at Delphi which housed the oracle, to bribe the oracle. This was reported by an ancient historian named Herodotus. He stated they promised to rebuild the temple if the oracle would do their bidding to convince the Spartans to invade Athens. The plan worked. There were probably many times even before this event where tribal leaders or even those others in ancient civilizations did corrupt acts for their benefit. There have been plenty of stories about the corruption in Rome. Every means was used to influence those who could do the bidding which would empower others. What I find very interesting is the ancient Romans had a law called ambitus. This law had to do with influencing elections. When you violated this law, it was a crime of political corruption. A violation was when someone tried to bribe or use other means of control. If in those days you wanted to hurt another candidate you charged him with ambitus. Wow nothing has really changed that much. Roman laws failed many times to stop corruption in Rome and even in the provinces where many of the governors were more than happy to take bribes of all sorts. One of the richest Romans, if not the richest was Crassus. I think many of us have heard of him. He is remembered as the commander who defeated Spartacus in the slave uprising, but he was also an unethical business man. He gained control of the fire departments and where there was a fire, the people were charged and if they didn’t pay, the firemen would allow the structure to burn to the ground. He was a general and Roman statesman. He had risen to ruler of Rome in a Triumvirate with Caesar and Pompey. He had decided after being appointed governor of Syria to start a war against the Parthian Empire which today is Iran. He did this to make himself a hero and even more important for his ambitions. It didn’t work out for him and he was killed. One form of political corruption is nepotism. This pertains to appointing people who have family relationships to jobs by those in power. These jobs are usually some of the top jobs in government or business and bypass others who are qualified. This practice has endured throughout history. If we look at the history of the United States for nepotism, the presidency of Grant is a good example. He had appointment 40 of his family and relatives to important jobs. Some of them proved to also be corrupt. One of Grant’s brothers in law was found to have stolen from the New Orleans Customs Office but was later appointed as collector of customs and there were other such cases. The ancient Egyptians were an incredible race as we all know by their records and structures, but I wonder how many know they passed many laws to fight corruption and made a concerted effort to wipe it out. Thanks to their superior record keeping we know this for a fact. They had a concept known as Maat, which meant truth and justice in society. If you were found to have taken a bribe you were removed from office and forced to become an agricultural worker. Treason resulted in the death penalty. To stop corrupt judges if it was felt they were purposely going too slow during a proceeding they were to be punished with a hundred strokes, removed from their judgeship, and transferred to a lesser position. One of the most famous and powerful families in Europe in the 14 hundreds were the Medici family of Florence. They started a bank and became very rich, but over the years the bank had made bad investments so the Medicis began to embezzle money from the Florentine state treasury, which was a very bad idea. Next, they took money from charitable funds. This all ended when King Charles VII of France invaded and caused the bank to be dissolved. Piero de Medici, also known as Piero the Unfortunate was exiled. In the 1300s corruption bloomed in England under Edward IIIs reign. Leading members of government were involved. The King’s Chamberlain and the Warden of the Mint were taking bribes, and they were also embezzling government funds. They would charge usury amounts of interest on loans. The Parliament had enough and in 1376 tried to end the corruption. The Chamberlain and Warden were thrown in jail and their lands forfeited. This only lasted for a year however and they were returned to power the next year. Eventually the people had enough and captured them and chopped off their heads. They never came back after that. One form of corruption is when government officials charge the payment of unofficial activities to the government. When Teddy Roosevelt first came to the New York legislator he kept a diary and noted some of the corrupt acts he had seen by other legislators. He saw bags of cash being transferred for Tammany Hall personnel which were rewards for killing different bills. He called one Assemblyman named John Rains a vulture and said another named Murphy "He adds a great deal of stupidity and a decided looseness of ideas as regards the Eighth Commandment." Corruption in Albany has been going on for hundreds of years. When it comes to proof of corruption in Albany, nothing shows it better than the oldest physical proof that has been found there. A bill was found for the governor, a judge and two Indian affairs officials who spent a weekend at an Albany tavern in 1779. They had eaten expensive meals, drank and ate all sorts of deserts. They were not on government business, but billed the state of New York the equivalent of $1,000. Can you imagine how much money this was in those days? I will be glad to tell you. Today it would be about $35,000 for the weekend stay.
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