Ancient Roman Corruption Exposed Through New Archaeological Evidence
A recent study by an international team of researchers has revealed a 2,000-year-old corruption scandal, offering a rare glimpse into Roman judicial practices in the provinces of Judea and Arabia during a period of social and political upheaval. The document is a Greek-language papyrus spanning 133 lines and is the longest of its kind ever found in the Judean Desert. This shocking discovery shows that corruption wasn’t just a minor issue in Rome—it was systematic and reached the highest levels of government. The mention in the papyrus of important figures, including Emperor Hadrian and the governor of Judea, Tineius Rufus, stands as testimony to the heightened tensions of the time. What seems apparent from the papyrus is that Roman authorities viewed the defendants’ actions as potentially rebellious and connected them with larger conspiracies against the empire. Roman aristocrats, like all ancient elites, almost universally disliked trade and held the merchants who made it possible in contempt. Trade was seen as a sordid, cheating sort of thing whereby merchants could gain wealth outside of the proper ways of being born rich or capturing wealth in war. The newly discovered evidence reveals how this disdain for honest work created a breeding ground for corruption that would eventually destroy the empire from within.
The Fall of Music Mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2024
In a year brimming with celebrity controversies, Sean “Diddy” Combs managed to top the list with one of the most shocking scandals of 2024. The downfall began when a video of him attacking his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, was shared online. The surveillance video from 2016 captured the music mogul grabbing, shoving, and kicking his then-girlfriend before dragging her through a hallway of a Los Angeles hotel. Following allegations of sexual abuse, sex trafficking, and physical violence, Diddy’s once-thriving empire began to crumble. The lawsuit filed by singer Cassie Ventura in late 2023 detailed horrific claims of coercion and abuse, including allegations of forcing women into sexually charged parties referred to as “freak offs.” Law enforcement’s subsequent raid on Diddy’s Los Angeles mansion revealed alarming evidence, including a large cache of baby oil and narcotics. The music mogul was arrested in New York City in September on federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, and transportation for purposes of prostitution. Authorities accused him of orchestrating a network that forced victims into non-consensual intimate acts, often under the influence of illegal substances, and using threats and violence to maintain control. His multiple bail requests were denied, and his trial is expected to begin in 2025.
FIFA’s Ongoing Corruption Aftermath and Recent Developments
In 2015, United States federal prosecutors disclosed cases of corruption by officials and associates connected with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer. Near the end of May 2015, fourteen people were indicted in connection with an investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division into wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. The scandal continues to have massive financial consequences nearly a decade later. The Department of Justice announced today a further distribution of approximately $92 million in compensation for losses suffered by FIFA, the world organizing body of soccer; CONCACAF, the confederation responsible for soccer governance in North and Central America, among other jurisdictions; CONMEBOL, the confederation responsible for soccer governance in South America; and various constituent national soccer federations. The funds, which were remitted following the Justice Department’s recognition of losses and grant of remission up to a total of $201 million in August 2021, were forfeited to the United States in the Eastern District of New York as part of the government’s long-running investigation and prosecution of corruption in international soccer. To date, the prosecutions have resulted in charges against more than 50 individual and corporate defendants from more than 20 countries. During the course of the prosecutions, 27 individual defendants have pleaded guilty to their roles in the charged crimes. The scale of corruption was so extensive that it basically transformed FIFA into a criminal enterprise disguised as a sports organization.
The Panama Papers Trial Concludes With Shocking Acquittals
In June 2024, a judge in Panama acquitted all former Mossack Fonseca employees, including the two founders, due to insufficient evidence and problems with the chain of custody of evidence. On June 28, 2024 Judge Baloísa Marquínez acquitted the 28 accused individuals. She explained that the evidence brought against Mossack and Fonseca was insufficient and the chain of evidence was not comprehensible. That investigation, based on a trove of 11.5 million files leaked to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with ICIJ, exposed the offshore financial secrets of world leaders and other powerful public figures, triggering protests, government probes and the resignation of Iceland’s prime minister. The revelations prompted lawsuits and regulatory reforms in Panama and beyond, and directly led to governments recuperating over $1.36 billion in back taxes and penalties. What makes this even more outrageous is the new president’s reaction. Legal experts say the acquittal of 28 defendants facing Panama Papers-related money laundering charges raises questions about the progress of anti-corruption efforts in Panama and beyond, as the country’s new president welcomed the outcome of the trial and called the original journalistic investigation a “hoax.” This dismissive attitude toward one of history’s biggest financial scandals shows how powerful people can still escape justice even when their crimes are exposed to the world.
Cambridge Analytica’s Supreme Court Showdown in 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court will allow a multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit against Meta for privacy violations stemming from the Cambridge Analytica scandal to move forward. The ruling on Friday, which allows an appellate court decision to stand, leaves the company behind Facebook and Instagram exposed to huge damages for financial losses investors say they incurred relating to the company’s sale of the private data of millions of its users to the data firm. The app harvested the data of up to 87 million Facebook profiles. Cambridge Analytica used the data to analytically assist the 2016 presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Meta was fined $725 million for their laissez-faire attitude toward data management, but no real changes have been made, as we may still be seeing them abuse data today in 2024. The scandal from 2018 is still creating legal nightmares for Meta, proving that some betrayals of public trust can haunt companies for years. One of the most disturbing aspects of the Cambridge Analytica scandal was its political implications. The data harvested by Cambridge Analytica was used to influence elections around the world, including the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Brexit referendum in the UK. This raised serious questions about the ethical use of data in politics and the potential for manipulation of democratic processes.
Roman Empire’s Economic Self-Destruction Through Trade Wars
The second Trump administration has embarked on a set of broadly anti-trade tariff policies that are threatening the foundations of Pax Americana, the post-World War II global order that ensured U.S. dominance, growing prosperity in much of the world, and relative global peace. If the United States-led order falls, it would not be the first such system whose decline could be partly attributed to short-sighted political decisions that reduced trade. Yet the Roman Empire benefited greatly from expanding Mediterranean trade between the third century B.C.E. to the third century C.E. Roman policy encouraged trade and the economic growth it created lined Roman coffers too, at least until the Romans themselves fragmented the pan-Mediterranean trade zone they had created, impoverishing their empire and leaving it less able to face the challenges that would eventually lead to its fall. The great boom in trade the Romans enjoyed was not entirely serendipity: While sea trade had been growing prior to Rome’s expansion to encompass the whole of the Mediterranean—a process that advanced in stages from the third to the first centuries B.C.E.—Roman rule notably accelerated that growth. While Roman aristocrats in the Senate often looked down their noses at the sorts of people engaging in trade (while also secretly acting as silent partners in such ventures). The empire’s elite basically killed the golden goose by destroying the very trade networks that made them wealthy and powerful in the first place.
Celebrity Empire Collapses: Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar Battle
The rap world was rocked by the heated feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar this year. While the two rap titans have had tense moments in the past, their relationship reached a flash point in 2023 when Drake and J. Cole collaborated on the song First Person Shooter. On the track, J. Cole references “the Big Three” that “started the league”—namely, Drake, Kendrick, and himself. Kendrick wasn’t on board with the idea of sharing the podium and hurled a full-blown attack on J. Cole and Drake in 2024. He denounced the “Big 3” while rapping a verse in Future and Metro Boomin’s song Like That in March, 2024. “Motherf— the big three, n—a, it’s just big me,” he rapped. The beef escalated as the two rap artists continued throwing lyrical shade at each other through a series of diss tracks, cryptic messages, and passive-aggresive comments. This wasn’t just a typical rap beef—it was a full-scale war that destroyed relationships and exposed the ugly side of hip-hop’s commercial empire. The fallout showed how quickly celebrity empires can crumble when egos clash and personal vendettas take over.
The Spanish Inquisition’s Religious Terror Campaign
The Spanish Inquisition, established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, represented one of history’s most systematic campaigns of religious persecution. This wasn’t just about maintaining faith—it was about absolute control through terror. The Inquisition targeted converted Jews (conversos) and Muslims (moriscos), using torture, public humiliation, and execution to root out supposed heresy. Thousands were burned at the stake in public spectacles designed to terrify the population into submission. The economic impact was devastating as entire communities of skilled merchants, doctors, and intellectuals fled Spain, taking their wealth and knowledge with them. Modern historians estimate that Spain lost between 150,000 to 300,000 people through execution, exile, and emigration. The Inquisition didn’t just destroy individual lives—it crippled Spain’s intellectual and economic development for centuries, turning a golden age empire into a backward, isolated nation.