Bread and circuses

"Bread and circuses" (or "bread and games"; from <a href="/facts/Latin/pM3Kge85">Latin</a>: panem et circenses) is a <a href="/facts/Metonymy/EdwzPEyE">metonymic</a> phrase referring to superficial <a href="/facts/Appeasement/QbM7FLuR">appeasement</a>. It is attributed to <a href="/facts/Juvenal/wAjQVVyh">Juvenal</a> (Satires, Satire X), a <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman</a> poet active in the late first and early second century AD, and is used commonly in cultural, particularly political, contexts.
In a <a href="/facts/Politics/1gDNy3RP">political</a> context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in <a href="/facts/Public_service/gnDGgRmQ">public service</a> or <a href="/facts/Public_policy/fYl7gXaC">public policy</a>, but by diversion, <a href="/facts/Distraction/wW6WuND7">distraction</a>, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace, by offering a palliative: for example <a href="/facts/Food/RgNq6NAK">food</a> (<a href="/facts/Bread/Sr4Ucgfq">bread</a>) or <a href="/facts/Entertainment/XXRnLM62">entertainment</a> (<a href="/facts/Roman_circus/1g13e4rM">circuses</a>). Juvenal originally used it to decry the "selfishness" of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase implies a population's erosion or ignorance of <a href="/facts/Citizenship/eB9UXLSP">civic duty</a> as a priority.

Bread and circuses open-in-new

Bread and circuses