Stacia

“I have not set myself the goal of recording senatorial proposals, except in cases where they are remarkable for their integrity, or notoriously discreditable. For I think it is a special duty of history to see that virtues are not left unrecorded, and also that fear of disgrace in posterity attends iniquitous words and actions. But those times were so corrupt and contaminated with sycophancy that men competed with each other in standing up and making foul and outrageous proposals. And it was not just the leading citizens of the community who did so, either, men who had to protect their distinction with servility; so, too, did all the ex-consuls, most ex-praetors, and even many of the lower-ranking senators. The story goes that, whenever he left the Curia, Tiberius was in the habit of declaring, in Greek: 'Ah, men ready to be slaves!' Clearly, while he objected to the freedom of the people, he was also sickened by such abject submission from his 'slaves'.

(From Book Three, Chapter 65)”
― Tacitus, The Annals: The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero