Looking back over past postings, I realise that I have never cited the passage from which this blog takes its name. Here are the lines (77-81) from Juvenal’s tenth satire. The translation is Peter Green’s from the Penguin edition.
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.
But nowadays with no votes to sell, their motto
Is “Couldn’t care less”. Time was when their plebiscite elected
Generals, heads of state, commanders of legions: but now
They’ve pulled in their horns, there’s only two things that
concern them:
Bread and circuses.
Not a comment, but a question. Is "they will vote themselves bread and circuses" a real quote? If so, who said it? I have tried to find it at several quotations websites, but to no avail so far.
Posted by: Mike B | July 01, 2006 at 03:32 PM