Culture · Roman Empire Daily
The phrase 'bread and circuses' comes from a Roman poet mocking a public he said cared only for food and games.
Deep dive
The satirist Juvenal complained that the people who once granted power now longed only for 'panem et circenses.' The phrase endures as shorthand for distraction-as-politics.
Source: Juvenal, 'Satires,' 10.77–81.
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