No doubt, the time of the Romans, as marred as it was by corruption and excess and treason, was one of the most accomplished periods in the history of man.
Don't let the fact that such was the case throughout much of the Roman Empire make us forget that the early and mid Roman Republic produced the type of men that the Founding Fathers patterned themselves after.
"Public men among the Greeks, if they be trusted with but one talent, though you take ten copies of the deed and affix two seals and have twenty witnesses, cannot keep their trust, whereas among the Romans, though handling great sums in their offices and embassies, men hold to their duty under the simple bond of an oath. Elsewhere it is hard to find a man keeping his hands off public money, and pure in this respect ; at Rome it is hard to find a man guilty of such conduct." ................Polybius (Greek historian. 200-118 B.C.)