When have bread and circuses been free? Serious question, I like history
this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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Rome famously used free wheat and entertainment to keep the plebeians placated.
Started with Gracchus giving out free food and escalated to food and entertainment to keep the population happy.
Bread and circuses has become an enduring phrase as a result.
Which is kinda asinine, "what a populist panderer, fulfilling the need of a society for adequate food provision and cultural enrichment!"
Bread and circuses always sounds like a refrain of people who disdain those with simpler priorities and ambitions than them.
Rome used subsidized grain (including a list of households, typically middle class, who received free bread, the sale of grain to others at below-market-price, and offering subsidies and rewards for bakers who sold bread below a certain price) for the massive population of the city of Rome itself, and a certain number of seats to the games were given out for free each day (complete with people camping out early to get them before they ran out).
Can’t he just crawl trough the bars?
Only if he'd stop eating that damn bread