And now bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.

[Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.]

Tacitus (c.56-c.120) Roman historian, orator, politician [Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]

Annals, Book 3, ch. 27 (AD 117)

More common variants:

• "The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government."
• "The more corrupt the state, the more laws."