"... nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses."
- Juvenal, Satires, Satire X (lines 77–81)
"... for the people who once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and everything else, now restrain themselves and anxiously long for just two things: bread and circuses."
The bread runs out. The circuses continue. The empire does not.
I love that we’re the new Rome. Peace with Persia in the afternoon and a gladiator fight in the evening, all on the Emperor’s birthday. Another 1,000 years.