As a senator, Robert Menendez towered over New Jersey and Washington. He helped rebuild after Hurricane Sandy, established a Smithsonian museum for Latino history and shaped American foreign policy.

But as Mr. Menendez’s five-decade career came to a humiliating end on Wednesday when a judge handed down a federal prison sentence, it was not bills or buildings that seemed destined to define his outsize place in this dizzying political era. It was gold bars and blaming his wife.

More than any other details of his sweeping international bribery case, those two motifs have come to stand for the improbable mash-up of gravity and tawdriness that will link the former senator and his times. A parable of modern Washington, ripped from Bravo.

Jurors actually weighed gold bars recovered from Mr. Menendez’s home in their palms last summer before they found the Democratic senator guilty of selling his high office to foreign powers and crooked businessmen.

Then they listened as his lawyers (unsuccessfully) tried to explain how a senior statesman had been duped by his real New Jersey housewife, describing the intimate details of a senatorial marriage and a hustle involving, of all things, halal meat.

“At a time when our expectations continue to get lower and lower for people in public life, the thing Bob Menendez is going to be remembered for is lowering those standards even further,” said former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican who tangled with him for years.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.