Dictionary.com
definitions

bread and circuses

See more synonyms for bread and circuses on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. something, as extravagant entertainment, offered as an expedient means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance.

Origin of bread and circuses

1910–15; translation of Latin pānis et circēnsēs; from a remark by the Roman satirist Juvenal on the limited desires of the Roman populace
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
bread and circuses in Culture

bread and circuses

A phrase used by a Roman writer to deplore the declining heroism of Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire began: “Two things only the people anxiously desire — bread and circuses.” The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging huge spectacles. (See Colosseum.)

Note

“Bread and circuses” has become a convenient general term for government policies that seek short-term solutions to public unrest.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.