The guy was in debt up to his eyeballs, and had borrowed so much money to finance his rise to power that he threatened to skip town forever if he lost an election.

Back in Caesar's day, interest rates in Rome were about 12%. In ancient Mesopotamia, interest rates could be as high as 25% or more.

In ancient Greece, 10% to 15%. During the Song Dynasty in Medieval China, rates were around 7% to 10%.

Today interest rates are basically nothing; in some cases, rates are even less than nothing.

If you take your hard-earned savings and loan it to a bankrupt government in Europe, you can guarantee a negative rate of return.