Augustus Bread And Circuses Analysis

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The Bread and Circus in Rome was bread and chariot races and gladiatorial games that filled the belly and distracted the mind, allowing emperors to rule as they saw fit. The Emperor Augustus was well aware of this risk and was keen to keep the poorest plebeians happy enough and reasonably well fed so that they would not riot. He began the system of state bribery that the writer Juvenal described as ‘bread and circuses’. Augustus came up with this so the Plebeians would not riot. This practice was used because people were born into their social classes and could not switch what one they were born into. The lower classes needed food to be provided to them if they couldn 't get it themselves. It offered the production of food, public baths,