panem et circenses

American  

[pah-nem et ser-ken-sayz] / ˌpɑ nɛm ɛt sərˈkɛnˌseɪz /

idiom

1. (in Latin) food and entertainment, or any other simple things patronizingly assumed to be the main interest of the common people, easily exploited as a distraction for political advantage; literally, bread and circuses.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

panem et circenses

Katniss lives in District 12 of Panem — as in panem et circenses, Latin for bread and circuses — a totalitarian state that has risen from the postwar ashes of North America.

From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2012

Like the Romans of old, they are content if they have but panem et circenses, which a Frenchman would render by spectacles et de quoi manger.

From Paris as It Was and as It Is by Francis W. Blagdon

From old time, all that they have ever cared for are the panem et circenses; and the Carnival gives them both. 

From Rome in 1860 by Edward Dicey

On one side: Nero, Petronius, Vinicius, Seneca himself, and a mass harassed only about panem et circenses.

From The Religious Spirit of the Slavs (1916) Sermons On Subjects Suggested By The War, Third Series by Nikolai Velimirović

They live on "panem et circenses," or City-Hall places and pot-houses, where they have full credit.

From The Dangerous Classes of New York And Twenty Years' Work Among Them by Charles Loring Brace

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