BREAD AND CIRCUSES Definition & Meaning

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bread and circuses

noun

something, as extravagant entertainment, offered as an expedient means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance.

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 .)

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Notes

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

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of bread and circuses¹

1910–15; translation of Latin pānis et circēnsēs; from a remark by the Roman satirist Juvenal on the limited desires of the Roman populace

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

It will be bread and circuses, only with no bread.

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It is the same movie, slightly tweaked and constantly referencing and reminding you of the original, delivering what you already loved about “Gladiator”: strength and honor, bread and circuses, blood and guts.

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Roman poet Juvenal coined the phrase “bread and circuses” nearly 2,000 years ago for the extravagant entertainment the Roman Empire used to distract attention from imperial policies that caused widespread discontent.

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My second takeaway is that bread and circuses — the Roman phrase for distracting the populace with spectacle — was in full force.

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The context might be different, depending on, say, whether the audience is living in a republic or an empire, but the basics will remain the same: sex and violence, swords and sandals, bread and circuses, the decadent rich and the honest poor.

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