"
Bread and circuses" (or "
bread and games"; from
Latin:
panem et circenses) is a
metonymic phrase referring to superficial
appeasement. It is attributed to
Juvenal (
Satires, Satire X), a
Roman poet active in the late first and early second century AD, and is used commonly in cultural, particularly political, contexts.
In a
political context, the phrase means to generate public approval, not by excellence in
public service or
public policy, but by diversion,
distraction, or by satisfying the most immediate or base requirements of a populace,
[1] by offering a
palliative: for example
food (
bread) or
entertainment (
circuses). Juvenal originally used it to decry the "selfishness" of common people and their neglect of wider concerns.
[2][3][4] The phrase implies a population's erosion or ignorance of
civic duty as a priority.