Context

Dune: House Atreides, 65

[Chapter Epigram. In the following chapter, Paulus Atreides successfully performs in the bull ring on Caladan, and presents his son Leto to the crowd.] 

The populace must think their ruler is a greater man than they, else why should they follow him? Above all a leader must be a showman, giving his people the bread and circuses they require.

Background 

The phrase "bread and circuses" is the common translation of the Latin phrase "panem et circenses." This line comes from line 81 of a poem written by the Roman satirist Juvenal, who lived from the end of the first to the beginning of the second century CE. Juvenal is known for writing satirical poems that critiqued, poked fun at, and moralized about contemporary Roman society.

In his 10th Satire (lns. 77-81), Juvenal complains that the citizens of Rome no longer care about political life, and are content to live under an emperor as long as they are fed and entertained:

iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli 

vendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim

imperium fasces legiones omnia, nunc se

continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,

panem et circenses.

for a long time now, the populace which didn't use to

sell its votes, has ceased to care. Those who once dished out

empire, power, legions, in short, everything, now

holds itself content, and anxiously desires only two things:

bread and circuses.*

Already in its original context, therefore, the phrase was used to critique citizens for not taking an active role in politics, and putting up with any sort of leadership so long as they had something to eat and something to keep them entertained. 

In the early 1800s, the phrase "panem et circenses" began appearing in British newspapers, followed by the English rendering "bread and circuses" and "bread and games" in British and American newspapers in the late 1840s.** In these cases, the phrase was also used to refer to measures meant to keep citizens happy and preoccupied. However, the phrase took on a new ambivalence. That is, while Juvenal used the phrase to satirize his fellow citizens for being content to live under an emperor, in the 1800s, it was also used to criticize governments that would stoop to such measures to distract their citizens. To this day, the phrase has retained the ability to cut both ways, to criticize either the people or the government. 

Further Reading

Gunderson, E. 1996. "The Ideology of the Arena." Classical Antiquity, 15(1), 113–151. https://doi.org/10.2307/25011033 

Hooley, Daniel. 2007. Roman Satire. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Juvenal, Persius. 2004. Juvenal and Persius. Edited and translated by Susanna Morton Braund. Loeb Classical Library 91. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

*translation by SB

** Based on searches of "bread and circuses" and "bread and games" in the Library of Congress "Chronicling America" online database of newspapers, and of "panem et circenses," "bread and games," "bread and circuses" in the British Library online newspaper archive.

Entry prepared by Sam Butler, Brown University