The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease
Not Cicero — actually Ben MoreellBen Moreell1892–1978 · U.S. Navy admiral, engineer & founder of the Seabees
The sentence was written in 1956 by U.S. Navy Admiral Ben Moreell in an essay called “Of Bread and Circuses,” published in the magazine The Freeman. Moreell was writing about Rome’s decline, not quoting a Roman — his essay opens by correctly crediting the phrase “bread and circuses” to the satirist Juvenal ↗, and never mentions Cicero anywhere.
“The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease” Ben Moreell, "Of Bread and Circuses," The Freeman, January 1956, pp. 29–32 (quotation at p. 31). Not Cicero: Wikiquote lists it under Misattributed, and Moreell's essay never mentions him. Via Quotle.info
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Marcus Tullius Cicero. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of Ben Moreell — U.S. Navy admiral, civil engineer & founder of the Seabees. Theme: "The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The real source
Work
“Of Bread and Circuses”
Published
The Freeman, January 1956, pp. 29–32
Author
Ben Moreell (1892–1978)
Location
Left column of p. 31 in the original printing
The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease.
Moreell’s essay opens by quoting Juvenal’s tirade against his “degenerate countrymen” and then argues that the Roman people gradually traded their sovereignty to government administrators for food and spectacles. The sentence above is his own conclusion about that bargain — his commentary on Rome, not a translation of any Roman writer. Per Wikiquote’s citation ↗, it sits in the left column of p. 31 of the January 1956 issue.
Wikiquote’s Cicero article ↗ lists this sentence under its Misattributed heading — not under Disputed, and not among his sourced works. Its note names the real author, publication and page: Ben Moreell, “Of Bread and Circuses,” The Freeman, January 1956, pp. 29–32.
The full text of Moreell’s essay ↗, hosted by the Foundation for Economic Education under his byline and dated 1 January 1956, contains the sentence verbatim. The essay opens with Juvenal, not Cicero, and Cicero’s name never appears in it.
The periodical scan archive at The Unz Review ↗ independently confirms the bibliographic record: “Of Bread and Circuses” by Ben Moreell, The Freeman, January 1956, pp. 29–32.
The false credit fits a well-documented pattern. Quote Investigator ↗ traced another famous “Cicero” passage — the one about balancing the budget — to Taylor Caldwell’s 1965 novel A Pillar of Iron, concluding there is “no substantive evidence that Cicero spoke or wrote these words.”
This wording first appeared in print in January 1956, so it is not public domain in the United States — despite the Roman subject matter and the ancient name attached to it. Nothing here descends from a public-domain classical text: only the two-word phrase “bread and circuses” goes back to Juvenal, while the sentence itself is Moreell’s own twentieth-century prose. We have not examined the US copyright renewal record for The Freeman, so we treat the essay as protected.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Who it gets pinned on, and why
This is a modern American essayist’s sentence wearing a toga. Because it argues about Rome, uses a Latin-derived catchphrase, and sounds like republican civic warning, it drifted onto the most quotable Roman name available — and Cicero is the internet’s single most reliable magnet for invented antiquity.
✕
The full sentenceMarcus Tullius Cicero Fabricated credit
Wikiquote ↗ places it under Misattributed and identifies the true source as Ben Moreell’s 1956 essay. The wording appears in none of Cicero’s writings, and Moreell — who was writing about Roman decline and had every reason to name a Roman authority — does not mention Cicero once.
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The phrase “bread and circuses” onlyJuvenal Correct, but only for the phrase
Panem et circenses comes from Juvenal’s Satires, Satire X ↗, written around the turn of the second century AD. Moreell credits Juvenal openly in his opening paragraph. The two-word phrase is genuinely ancient; the sentence built around it is not.
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The wider pattern of fake CiceroTaylor Caldwell’s novel A Pillar of Iron (1965) The usual culprit
Several of the most-shared “Cicero” quotations — on bureaucrats, on balancing the budget, on treason from within — are lines that Wikiquote ↗ traces to Caldwell’s historical novel, where they are the words of a fictional character. Quote Investigator ↗ reached the same conclusion about the budget passage. This quote is a different case with the same ending: a modern author’s words, laundered into antiquity.
✓A U.S. Navy admiral wrote it in an American magazine in 1956. Cicero has no claim on it, and neither does any Roman — except for the two borrowed words “bread and circuses,” which belong to Juvenal ↗.
Context
Why an admiral was writing about Rome
Ben Moreell built things. He founded the Seabees, the Navy’s fighting construction battalions, and by the end of the Second World War his Civil Engineer Corps commanded a quarter of a million people. When he retired he ran a steel company. He was not a classicist, and “Of Bread and Circuses” is not a work of ancient history — it is a piece of mid-century political argument that borrows Rome as a mirror.
The essay’s method explains the confusion. Moreell quotes Juvenal, then imagines a modern-style opinion poll conducted in first- and second-century Rome, with contented citizens praising their new “security.” The whole thing reads as though a Roman were speaking. Strip out the framing, keep one memorable sentence, and it will pass for antiquity — which is exactly what happened.
The sentence sounds two thousand years old because it was engineered to. It is seventy.
Read the full story
Moreell’s actual point is narrower than the version that circulates. He is not condemning bread or games; he says so explicitly with the words “per se.” The object of the criticism is the trade — a people willing to exchange political rights for comfort and distraction — and the closing clause insists that the bargain fails on its own terms, because comfort cannot satisfy “other human hungers.”
That structure is a clue to its real age. The qualifying “per se,” the psychological turn toward unmet needs, and the framing of rights as something a citizenry can sell are all recognisably twentieth-century moves, not the rhetoric of a Roman orator arguing in the Forum.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1892–1978 · U.S. Navy admiral, civil engineer & founder of the Seabees
Ben Moreell was a civil engineer who took a commission in the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps in 1917 and, as chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks from 1937, created the Seabees — the Navy’s militarised construction battalions, for whom he coined the motto Construimus, Batuimus (“We Build, We Fight”). In 1946 he became the first staff corps officer to reach four-star rank. After leaving the Navy he led Turner Construction and then spent roughly a dozen years as president and chairman of Jones and Laughlin Steel, writing free-market essays for The Freeman alongside his industrial career.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Source
Ben Moreell, “Of Bread and Circuses,” The Freeman, January 1956, 29–32; the quoted sentence appears on p. 31. Frequently misattributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero, who did not write it — Wikiquote lists it under Misattributed.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease’?” Last verified 27 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-evil-was-not-in-bread-and-circuses-per-se-but-in-the/