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They may have had better roads, but they couldn't hold a candle to the spectacle of our many circuses. Id bring up the bread too, but the price gettin a little nutty.
Whereas they gave everyone grain allotments.
Also, I'd say people getting torn up by lions is a much bigger spectacle than whatever Cirque du Soleil is doing lately.
Whereas they gave everyone grain allotments.
Common misconception. Only a specific list of people in the city of Rome received free grain, and it's generally considered that they were more "Skilled working class" than genuinely impoverished in most cases - the point was to maintain the political stability of the city. This isn't to say that there wasn't irregular charity of other forms that got through, or local initiatives, only that the regular grain dole often spoken of isn't it.
They did subsidize grain, regulate the price and weight of bread, and reward bakers who sold bread under a certain price though. But that's not so different from today.
Can't feed Christians to lions since Christians are the majority now.
More supply = more games!