On the Roman Emperor, Caracalla (Circa 212), Bestowing Roman Citizenship On Virtually Every One of His Subjects (Sources - "The Decline of Rome and the Rise of Mediaeval Europe" by Solomon Katz and "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon)

 It sounds magnanimous......until you find out that the gesture had jack to do with any sort of disinterested generosity and much more to do with him securing more taxpayers (many of whom were peasants who couldn't pay much but you can always squeeze, I guess).......Of course what's even less surprising is that the ploy didn't work in that between the bribery, subsidies, corruption, tribute, and bridges to nowhere (yep, had 'em back then, too), turns out, it was just one more example of the government cat chasing the government tail with the debt continuing to exponentially spiral.......Kind of like today, huh?