Bread and circuses
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"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace,[1] as an offered "palliative." Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns.[2][3][4] The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.
Contents
Rome
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This phrase originates from Rome in Satire X of the Roman satirical poet Juvenal (circa A.D. 100). In context, the Latin panem et circenses (bread and circuses) identifies the only remaining cares of a Roman populace which no longer cares for its historical birthright of political involvement. Here Juvenal displays his contempt for the declining heroism of contemporary Romans.[5] Roman politicians passed laws in 140 B.C. to keep the votes of poorer citizens, by introducing a grain dole: giving out cheap food and entertainment, "bread and circuses", became the most effective way to rise to power.
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… 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[6]
[...] 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 Roman practice of providing free wheat to Roman citizens as well as costly circus games and other forms of entertainment as a means of gaining political power. The Annona (grain dole) was begun under the instigation of the popularis politician Gaius Sempronius Gracchus in 123 B.C.; it remained an object of political contention until it was taken under the control of the autocratic Roman emperors.
Bread and Bulls
19th and early 20th Spanish intellectuals complained of a similar phenomenon in Spanish society called "pan y toros," or "bread and bulls."
Cultural & Media References
- The Hunger Games: The name of the fictional country in which the franchise is set is Panem.
See also
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- List of Latin phrases
- Instrumentum regni
- Prolefeed
- Roman circus
- Colosseum
- Plebeian
- Idiot/idiocy (Athenian democracy)
- Idiocracy (movie)
- Culture industry
- Grain supply to the city of Rome
- Amusing Ourselves to Death
- Brave New World
- Battle Royale
- Bread and Circuses (Star Trek: The Original Series)
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
Notes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Juvenal's literary and cultural influence (Book IV: Satire 10.81)
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Infoplease Dictionary as pacification or diversion.
- ↑ Hirsch, Kett, & Trefil (1993). The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Houghton Mifflin.
- ↑ Leisure and Ancient Rome, By J. P. Toner full quote at p.69. For us in the modern world, leisure is secondary to work, but in ancient Rome leisure was central to social life and an integral part of its history.
Sources
- 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).
