The scale of electoral bribery became enormous in the late Republic. Even before Julius Caesar was elected consul for 59 B.C.E., he had run up debts of 25 million denarii [silver coins], mostly for bribes it seems. And he was not the only one to borrow money to finance a campaign. Cicero reported to his friend Atticus in 54 that candidates had soaked up so much of the available credit that interest rates had doubled.

Source Matthias Gelzer, Caesar, Politician and Statesman (Oxford Blackwell, 1985)