''Brot und Spiele'' (German for

bread and games "Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: ''panem et circenses'') is a metonymic phrase referring to superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE, and is used ...

) is Germany's biggest

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

festival, annually held in Germany's oldest city,

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

. The festival takes place at two of the city's Roman monuments: the

Amphitheatre An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

hosts theatre performances that include many

gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...

fights and the Imperial Baths are used to display the civil and military life in the

vicus In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (plural ) designated a village within a rural area () or the neighbourhood of a larger settlement. During the Republican era, the four of the city of Rome were subdivided into . In the 1st century BC, Augustus r ...

. In 2006 the festival was one of the winners of the "Germany - land of ideas" award. The 2007 festival was from 10 to 12 August 2007 and, as Trier celebrated the 'Constantine year',

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

played an important role as - the Gladiator Show dealt with gladiator fights and intrigues at his wedding in Trier (in the year 307) and the mystic night was inspired by the mysterious death of his wife

Fausta Flavia Maxima Fausta ''Augusta'' (289–326 AD) was a Roman empress. She was the daughter of Maximian and second wife of Constantine the Great, who had her executed and excluded from all official accounts for unknown reasons. Historians Zosimu ...

. In 2008 the festival took place from 15 to 17 August, the show in the amphitheatre will deal with an old legend from Trier: the deadly competition between the builder of the amphitheatre and the builder of the aqueduct.

History

Beginnings of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum

The event "Brot und spiele" took place for the first time on July 12 and 13, 1997. Under the motto "Brot und Spiele – Antikes (Er)leben im Amphitheater", the

Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier The ''Rheinische Landesmuseum Trier'' is an archaeological museum in Trier, Germany. The collection stretches from prehistory through the Roman period, the Middle Ages to the Baroque era with a strong emphasis on the Roman past of Augusta Trevero ...

organised a large campaign weekend as part of the

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

cultural summer event series, which presented an ancient

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

spectacle according to scientific findings. On July 12, 1997, Roman legionnaires of Legio XXII Primigenia and Legio VIII Augusta entered through the

Porta Nigra The Porta Nigra (Latin for ''black gate'') is a large Roman city gate in Trier, Germany. It is today the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps. It was designated as part of the Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St Peter and Church of Our Lady in ...

and then into the Trier

amphitheater An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

. There they reenacted scenes from the storming of the city wall, as they probably happened in

in AD 187. On July 13, 1997, the spectacle took place with 50 actors based on a script by historians Wilfried Stroh and

Marcus Junkelmann Marcus Junkelmann (born 2 October 1949 in Munich) is a German historian and experimental archeologist. Life and work Junkelmann started to study history at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1971 and in 1979 he received a PhD for a thesis ...

. After an entry, the official giving the game opened the gladiator games with a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

speech and a sacrifice to the gods. There were exhibition fights, also with horses. Parallel to the event there was a special exhibition and a panel discussion in the State Museum.

Roman spectacle of the city

From 2002 to 2010, Germany's largest Roman spectacle took place in

every August. In 2011, the event took place in September for the first time. The range of events extended to four locations: The "Spectaculum", a spectacle in connection with real gladiator fights, was performed against the historical backdrop of the

. From 2002 to 2005 the program was limited to

fights by the Ars Dimicandi institute in Milan and acrobatic performances. Since 2006, the fights have been embedded in a historical staging that gave the overall event its title. Alexander Etzel-Ragusa was responsible for directing the productions, and he has also written the plays since 2007. Since 2009, the Spectaculum has been telling a sequel from the "Arena zu Trier" at the time of Emperor Mark Aurelius with recurring characters. The majority of the imperial baths included the depiction of the civil and military Roman world. The tent camp on the

and the

palaestra A palaestra ( or ; also (chiefly British) palestra; grc-gre, παλαίστρα) was any site of an ancient Greek wrestling school. Events requiring little space, such as boxing and wrestling, took place there. Palaestrae functioned both indep ...

showed Roman handicrafts as well as art and medicine. Battle and combat presentations were staged on a parade ground in the palace garden. In the evening, during the "Mystical Night", the underground passages of the Kaiserthermen were staged with sound and light installations as well as dance performances. Accompanying this, a "Roman lounge" with live music invited young people in particular to visit the thermal baths in the evening. The Rheinisches Landesmuseum has been part of the event since 2010 and presented authentic Roman craftsmanship in the "fabricae" (Roman expression for workshops). Important principles of the event were authenticity and knowledge transfer, for which the organizers worked together with experts on Roman antiquity. Visitors could actively contribute and participate on the event site. Every year around 20,000 people attended the spectacle, which in 2006 was honored as a “selected place” by the German Land of Ideas initiative. In 2011, Brot & Spiele took place for the first time in the month of September. The event has also been extended to four days. After another deficit in 2012, the city of Trier decided to suspend "Brot & Spiele" in 2013. Mainly because the number of visitors was lower than expected, the city had to pay over 100,000 euros in subsidies for 2012, more than twice as high as originally planned.

References

External links

Official Website

Interview with Musician Peter Merger, responsible for the 'Mystic Night' of the festival
Culture in Trier Festivals in Germany {{Germany-festival-stub