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bread and circuses


pl.n.

Offerings, such as benefits or entertainments, intended to placate discontent or distract attention from a policy or situation.

[Translation of Latin pānem et circēnsēs, a phrase coined by the Roman poet Juvenal : pānem, accusative singular of pānis, bread + et, and + circēnsēs, circus games.]


 
 
History Dictionary: bread and circuses

A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: “Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.” The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles. (See Colosseum.)

  • “Bread and circuses” has become a convenient general term for government policies that seek short-term solutions to public unrest.

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    Wikipedia: bread and circuses

    "Bread and circuses" has come to be a derogatory phrase that can criticize either government policies to pacify the citizenry, or the shallow, decadent desires of that same citizenry. In both cases, it refers to low-cost, low-quality, high-availability food and entertainment that have become the sole concern of the People, to the exclusion of matters that some consider more important: e.g. the Arts, public works projects, human rights, or democracy itself. The phrase is commonly used to refer to short-term government palliatives offered in place of a solution for significant, long-term problems.

    History

    This phrase originates in Satire X of the Roman poet Juvenal of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. In context, the Latin phrase panem et circenses (bread and circuses) is given as the only remaining cares of a Roman populace which has given up its birthright of political freedom:


    ... Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man,
    the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time
    handed out military command, high civil office, legions - everything, now
    restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
    bread and circuses
    ... iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
    uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
    imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
    continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
    panem et circenses. ...
    (Juvenal, Satire 10.77-81)

    Juvenal here makes reference to the elite Roman practice of providing free wheat to some poor Romans as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment as a means of gaining political power through popularity. The Annona (grain dole) was begun under the instigation of the populist Gracchi in 123 BC; it remained an object of political contention until it was taken under the control of the Roman emperors.

    A reference in the The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (1993) states that Juvenal displayed his contempt for the declining heroism of his contemporary Romans in this passage.[1] Spanish intellectuals between the 19th and 20th centuries complained about the similar pan y toros ("bread and bullfights").

    Bread and circuses in the popular culture

    • An episode of Star Trek: The Original Series uses the title "Bread and Circuses." In this story, Captain Kirk and his companions are forced to fight in gladiatorial games on a planet modeled after the Roman Empire as the crew of the Enterprise tries to find fellow humans from Earth that crashed there six years earlier.
    • London-based punk band Million Dead have a song titled "Bread and Circuses" on their second album "Harmony No Harmony". It contains the lyrics "If every hour that I have spent stuck in a circus was spent learning a language, I’d have so much more to say. And if every penny that I have spent on processed bread was spent on growing my own food, my skin wouldn’t look so grey."
    • The Pet Shop Boys mention the phrase in two songs, "The sound of the atom splitting" (bread and circuses) and "Luna Park" (with circuses and bread we're happy)
    • Argentine comedian Enrique Pinti has a classic monologue about society called 'Pan y Circo' (Bread and Circuses)

    Notes

    1. ^ Hirsch, Kett, & Trefil (1993). The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Houghton Mifflin.

    References

    • Potter, D. and D. Mattingly, Life, Death, and Entertainment in the Roman Empire. Ann Arbor (1999).
    • Rickman, G., The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome Oxford (1980).

    See also

    External links


     
     

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    Copyrights:

    Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
    History Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more
    Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bread and circuses" Read more

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