Bread and circuses
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"Bread and Circuses" is a phrase used by Roman writers to deplore the decline in heroism in the Romans after the Roman Republic ceased to exist and the Roman Empire's ascendancy. The phrase is: "Two things only the people anxiously desire--bread and circuses." This was because the Roman government kept their population peaceful by providing free food and presenting huge spectacles at the Coloseum.
Bread and circuses has come to mean government policies that short term solutions to public unrest.