Throughout history, the struggle to combat government corruption has been a persistent challenge. In ancient Rome, political corruption was rampant, with wealthy individuals often bribing voters to secure power.
For the people's vote, the wealthy people who wanted to become king ( this was in 1 A.D so the people still had some say in the next ruler) would bribe everyone with money for their vote. The reason that this is mentioned now even if it is in the 200 A.D is because it kind of created the base for political corruption.
They used to have a king, and when the Praetorian Guard (the king's personal army) decided they needed a new one, they would just kill the king and just give away the throne to the highest bidder. At first, they would try to hold a debate between the Praetorian Guard, the army, the old king, and the "new" king. Eventually, the Praetorian guard took authority of selecting a new king, and killing an old one.
They would do anything for money or power; lie, kill, or cheat the government. No one cared about what was happening. Basically, they would try to do whatever they could do so that their family wouldn't go hungry.
Corruption in the U.S
Giving fake claims that you will do something in your presidency but then you don't fulfill your promise.
In the Watergate Scandal, Nixon was part of an act that was made to spy on government officials (doing of illegal acts in secrecy) Richard Nixon was in the running to be president and he did this during election time.