Rome's Heavenly Witnesses

In ancient Rome, you could literally become a millionaire just by lying witnessing. It started with Rome's first king, Romulus, who vanished in a storm and the senators said the gods took him. The people were furious, so a respected man named Proculus Julius swore that Romulus came down from the sky in glowing armor and told him that he was now a god of Rome and that everyone should worship him because Romulus said so. And just like that, the crowd calmed down. Rome loved that trick so much they kept it for a very long time. When Emperor Augustus died, a senator swore that he saw him flying up to heaven from his funeral fire [music] and Augustus' widow paid him a million sesterces for it. 24 years later, Emperor Caligula's sister died and another senator swore that he saw her go up to heaven, too, and he also became a millionaire. And honestly, these were some of the easiest millionaires Rome ever made.