# Bread and circuses **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 18, 1999, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637 "1999-08-18T23:29:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/1 "1999-08-18T23:29:00Z")
There’s an Onion story ( [www.theonion.com](http://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? ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/2 "1999-08-18T23:35:00Z")
A good place to look up quotations: _Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations_ at [http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/](http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/) * * * Carpe hoc! ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/3 "1999-08-18T23:39:00Z")
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” ---
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/4 "1999-08-18T23:41:00Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/5 "1999-08-18T23:43:00Z")
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” ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/6 "1999-08-18T23:47:00Z")
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” ---
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/7 "1999-08-18T23:48:00Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 1999, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/8 "1999-08-18T23:55:00Z")
BOING! spend ONE minute typing… ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/9 "1999-08-19T00:09:00Z")
Thanks, I’ll go with Pluto’s(member) quote. ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/10 "1999-08-19T00:26:00Z")
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](http://www.h2net.net/p/connect2/quotes.html) ---
**Author:** ![omniscientnot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a5b964/32.png) [@omniscientnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omniscientnot)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/11 "1999-08-19T00:37:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Hall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ebca7d/32.png) [@Rich\_Hall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Hall)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/12 "1999-08-19T00:39:00Z")
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/](http://freespace.virgin.net/mark.fryer/) ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 1999, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bread-and-circuses/2637/13 "1999-08-19T00:52:00Z")
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](http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/asbook3.html) Ancient history for endless pages.