So corrupted indeed and debased was that age by sycophancy that not only the foremost citizens who were forced to save their grandeur by servility, but every exconsul, most of the ex-praetors and a host of inferior senators would rise in eager rivalry to propose shameful and preposterous motions. Tradition says that Tiberius as often as he left the Senate-House used to exclaim in Greek, “How ready these men are to be slaves.” Clearly, even he, with his dislike of public freedom, was disgusted at the abject abasement of his creatures.
Tacitus, The Annals, via IOZ.
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What would you sacrifice to keep it? What payment would you demand to relinquish it?
Perhaps senates by their nature are prone to corruption.
I am often reminded how much the founders of the American republic risked when they became traitors to the Crown, and how little the current Congress would risk by standing up to power.