Today’s word of the day, thanks to Merriam-Webster, is talisman. According to the dictionary, a talisman is “an object (such as a ring or stone) that is believed to have magic powers and to cause good things to happen to the person who has it” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day). The word entered the English language around “1630s, ‘magical figure cut or engraved on stone or metal under certain observances,’ from French talisman, in part via Arabic tilsam (plural tilsaman), from Byzantine Greek telesma ‘talisman, religious rite, payment,’ earlier ‘consecration, ceremony,’ originally in ancient Greek ‘completion,’ from telein ‘perform (religious rites), pay (tax), fulfill,’ from telos ‘end, fulfillment, completion’ (see telos). The figurative sense of ‘any means of attainment of extraordinary results’ is by 1784” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=talisman).

On this date in 332 A.D., the Emperor Constantine introduced a food subsidy for the residents of Constantinople.

The city of Constantinople was founded by the Emperor Constantine in 324. It was placed where cities had existed before, notably Byzantium. It sits on either side of the Bosporus Straits, meaning that it is in both Europe and Asia. It is also on both the Mediterranean and Black Seas. In other words, it was in a prime location to be a hub for international trade, and it became a very rich city. In fact, Constantine envisioned it as a rival to Rome, and in 330 Constantine moved the capital of the Empire to it. As with so many capital cities, Constantinople attracted many, many people. Some of these people were the upper echelon of Rome, who followed the Emperor to his new home. In addition to these Roman elites, “he most wealthy of the provincials will be attracted by the powerful motives of interest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. A third and more numerous class of inhabitants will insensibly be formed, of servants, of artificers, and of merchants, who derive their subsistence from their own labor and from the wants or luxury of the superior ranks” ( https://historyweblog.com/2015/11/constantinople-population/). But wherever we find such large populations, we find great numbers of people who are often neither wealthy nor employed.

So Constantine did what his Roman predecessors had been doing for centuries: he provided the poor in his capital with free bread. “The roots of such programs stretch back to the late Roman Republic. As early as 132 BC, Rome began distributing grain to its poorer citizens, a practice that expanded over time and became a defining feature of imperial rule. The Roman poet Juvenal famously described this system as “bread and circuses,” a phrase that captured the essence of a society pacified by state handouts and public entertainment. Instead of fostering active civic participation, the government provided the essentials of life and spectacles to keep the populace content and politically disengaged” (https://classicaleducator.substack.com/p/bread-circuses-and-the-price-of-security).

The response to the program was probably favorable: “A witness account helps shed light on what such distributions might have looked like at ground level a vivid recollection from Maximus, a merchant who lived through these times: ‘On that fateful day when bread began flowing through our streets freely like water from fountains… I had never seen my neighbors so joyous! I saw mothers feeding their children bread for the first time in weeks… You could hear laughter mixed with tears all around me’” (https://dayhist.com/events/emperor-constantine-free-food-distribution-constantinople).

But over the long term, the results of the program may not have been so good: “Constantine’s adoption of this system in Constantinople was both practical and symbolic. It addressed the immediate needs of a population reliant on imported food, but it also marked a transfer of civic privileges from Rome to the new capital. The church, entrusted with distributing aid, became further intertwined with imperial authority, deepening the bonds between faith, state, and the people. Yet, beneath the surface, the program reflected a broader pattern: rulers maintaining order and consolidating power by offering comfort and distraction rather than fostering genuine engagement or independence” (https://classicaleducator.substack.com/p/bread-circuses-and-the-price-of-security). And the intermingling of state and church responsibilities would increase over time, especially after Theodosius I made the Christian Church the official church of the Roman Empire. And eventually, as the Empire lost power and wealth, the program had to be suspended, though in this case it took over 300 years: “618. Indiction 6, year 8, the 7th post-consulship of Heraclius Augustus. And from 22nd inclusive of the month January it is recorded as year 6 of the reign of Heraclius II Constantine. In this year the recipients of the state bread were requested for 3 coins (nomismata) for each loaf as a levy. And after everyone had provided this, straightway in the month August of the same indiction 6 the provision of this state bread was completely suspended” (https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2023/05/20/when-did-the-free-bread-stop-in-constantinople/).

But the public distribution of “bread and circuses” continues to this day. In some parts of the world, dictators explain away their tyranny by pointing out that they provide free or cheap food to the people. Even in developed democracies politicians promise free stuff to their people as a way to attract support. Indeed, our modern politicians seem to think that free bread is a very talisman.

Today’s image is a little cartoon from Professor Potts (https://www.professorpotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BreadandCicuses.jpg). I have no idea who that is, but it does seem to reflect that attitude of the satirist Juvenal.