I’ve been reading Lawless Republic: The Rise of Cicero and the Decline of Rome, by Josiah Osgood. I came across this striking passage on campaign finance issues in elections in 66 BCE, which shows that some of the same issues that affect campaign finance issues today have been around for more than 2,000 years.
As you can see, the Romans struggled over how to define the law between legitimate campaign finance activity and bribery. They also worried that defining bribery too expansively would lead to the weaponization of campaign finance laws. Plus ça change…:
