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Consider the sentence “The king is the one at whose side wealth walks”. It is taken from the Babylonian Theodicy, a poem which was written somewhere between 1500 B.C. and 1100 B.C. and which is therefore more than 3000 years old. Actually, within the poem that sentence is described as a widely spread opinion.

This may well be the oldest known complaint about the fact that being in good terms with whoever rules a country is the surest way of becoming rich. Does anyone know an older one? Or, if this is indeed the oldest known one, which one would be the second oldest?

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    I think this is too broad. On top of a statement from 3000 years ago, the synthesis of 1500 years of public opinion from a variety of polities is too omnidirectional to be answered nicely here (i.e., taking into account the relevant possibilities). – gktscrk Aug 9 '20 at 16:29
  • @gktscrk To me, it doesn't look broader than this question. – José Carlos Santos Aug 9 '20 at 16:36
  • Fair play! Opinions on topics here are personal. In which case, the most common answer to this (especially as the corruption you going at doesn't come through for me) would be 'the mandate of heaven' which recognises that a poor overlord will be brought down and a righteous (wise & generous) one will gain the throne. At the same time, the concept of 'gentleman' would have meant that this person attaining the lofty position would be wise and studied (i.e., 'wealthy'), and with him, of course, his ministers would also rise (and who would possibly be smarter/'wealthier' than the new king). – gktscrk Aug 9 '20 at 16:44
  • @JoséCarlosSantos I think it would be helpful if you rephrase to ask for the oldest example of this, or the second oldest if none is older than the one you gave. Obviously the complaint exists in antiquity: you listed one yourself. That's why this question comes across as more general than the one you linked; the other question is narrowly focused on the oldest example of something, whereas yours is not, and therefore has a tons of possible answers. – Semaphore♦ Sep 10 '20 at 9:08
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    @Semaphore Nice suggestion! I have edited my answer. – José Carlos Santos Sep 10 '20 at 9:17

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