"Rome’s inability, or unwillingness, to access the accumulated wealth of its elites was a crucial handicap when the funds necessary to secure the Empire ran short."
Gosh, that sounds familiar.
"Nero may not have fiddled as Rome burned..."
He may well have. Nero owned a fire brigade, that charged landowners for putting out fires on their property(s). There is a tale of Nero sending his firemen out to large estates to commit arson when the owners were away, while Nero would play his fiddle until the landowner agreed to pay his exorbitant price to put out the fire. If they could not, or would not, pay, he would put a lien on the property and become the owner of that land.
This scheme resulted in Nero becoming the richest Roman of his day. It is reported that Vladimir Putin used terrorism to become the richest Russian in a similar way, sending teams to commit terrorism which his counter-terrorist troops would end. By cleverly using propaganda regarding such incidents, he was elected to the Presidency in which office he was best placed to receive kickbacks and graft for facilitating corrupt oligarchs' schemes.
This technique is in quite common use in the West, as is blatantly obvious. As long as such corruption enables crime to pay well, improving financial technology only increases their take.
Thanks!