tt.humanist :: forum :: articles :: baldeosingh :: execution

"... to keep the average Roman from revolting against the rich, Augustus legislated food prices so that the poor could manage their basic needs, and also began a system of free food — in the form of grain distribution. At the same time, he offered free entertainment in the form of chariot races, bloody gladiatorial combat, lavish spectacles in amphitheatres, and the Circus Maximus. The poet Juvenal, in his fourth satire, coined the now-famous phrase "bread and circuses" to describe this strategy for keeping the citizens passive. It seems that some things have not changed in the past 2,000 years."