Bread and circuses

General Questions
#1

There’s an Onion story ( www.theonion.com ) with the title “Congress Approves $4 millon for bread, circuses.”
I know this is a take-off on a famous quote about the masses being happy as long as they get bread and circus entertainment.Probably Roman. The Onion story throws around words like “plebians” and “patrician.” Original quote?

And, while we are at it, where’s a good place to look up quotations on the Internet?

#2

A good place to look up quotations:

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations

at http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/

Carpe hoc!

#3

Found it!

It’s the title of episode #43 of the original Star Trek series.

It’s possible that there is an allusion to an older reference!

Actually, I did try to find it in Bartlett’s without any luck. A web search for the phrase turned up the Star Trek reference. I’ll keep looking.

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”

#4

“Bread and circuses, cabbages and kings.”
Alice in Wonderland (or was it through the looking glass) Either way it appeared in the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. Mr. Lewis, when not photographing young, naked girls, was quite out there.

#5

Sorry, it’s not from Lewis Carroll. The correct quotation is:

The time has come, the Walrus said,
To talk of many things.
Of ships and shoes and sealing wax,
And cabbages and kings.
And why the sea is boiling hot,
And whether pigs have wings.

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”

#6

DUAS TANTUM REX ANXIUS OPTAT,
PANEM ET CIRCENSES.

                                 "The people long eagerly for two things -
                                             bread and circuses."

                                                       Juvenal
                                             Roman rhetorician, satirical poet
                                                   (c. 60-140 A.D.)

I found this by searching for “panem et circenses” on Yahoo.

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”

#7

I will be surprized if you find THE quote, I think the phrase was in general use when it was a general practice in Rome. I might make a bet on Gibbens “Rise and Fall…”

“…”-Marx

#8

BOING! spend ONE minute typing…

#9

Thanks, I’ll go with Pluto’s(member) quote.

#10

Bartlett’s only goes up to 1901. I poked around with various web quotation pages, none would find the famous Karl Marx quotation (religion=opiate of the masses)
This one was somewhat interesting to browse: http://www.h2net.net/p/connect2/quotes.html

#11

May I add that, in correct Latin, you would pronounce it as if it were “panem et kirkenses”.

New those Classical Studies would come in handy some day.

#12

I always carry my Juvenal with me, but a bunch of the Roman quotes are in this place… Search under Juvenal first. http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.fryer/

#13

You show-off. This is what I read on my lunch hour(since they block me from this board): http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook3.html
Ancient history for endless pages.