Yes, bread and circuses. Today has been a day learning about bread and circuses, the appeasement of human needs, and the ways in which we can be right gits to each other. It has been an excellent birthday as a result.

I’m in Trier. I’ve wanted to go to Trier for quite some time, for reasons unknown to me, other than I knew it had a lot of history. For a town whose core town centre population was barely above 20,000 people for seventeen centuries, it indeed has a lot of history. And it has been great getting to know some of it.

Firstly, it’s a Roman town. The kind of Roman town you wander around and there’s ANOTHER Roman ruin. There are two Roman baths, a throne room, a city wall (parts of), one remaining city gate, a few towers and outposts (which were turned into residences during the Middle Ages and are still inhabited today), an amphitheatre and Roman stone pilfered and recycled EVERYWHERE.

The town council has a lot on its plate to maintain such a range of sites and I think it does so very well. The museums have detailed information and there is a real feeling of pride about the history of the town. The Roman sites are UNESCO world heritage sites, so no pressure, chaps.

I was given a gift voucher for my birthday to use on local museums and attractions (because I have a brilliant boyfriend). I converted it in to a Kombiticket for the town and regional museums, both of which had temporary exhibitions about Karl Marx. Marx was born in Trier 200 years ago this year. One exhibition focussed on his work, how this developed over his lifetime, his work with Engels and how influential (or not) his work was during his lifetime and afterwards. The other exhibition focussed on his life, the developments in Europe and specifically in what became the Prussian Empire, and what influence and importance these had to Marx as an individual and also to his work. Bread and circuses is a good way to look at Marx’s work – his work at the time and since is divisive but I found a lot of humanity in the exhibitions today and that is what I have always appreciated about Marx and Engels – they saw workers and their circumstances, what was in their control, what was taken outside of individual control and, importantly, questioned why this was the case for the many, rather than the few.

Bread and circuses for another reason today – a tour of the Roman amphitheatre. One can rock up between 10 am – 6 pm and pay 4 euros to visit the amphitheatre and walk around it. I’ve done so in arenas in Arles and Verona and very much enjoyed the experience. The ruined amphitheatre in Paris is now a public park, for example. However, gift certificate in hand, I went for the more detailed tour – my level of German still just about okay for it – and booked on to the promenade theatre tour. An actor, taking the role of a retired gladiator, walks you around the amphitheatre and explained what you can see now and what it used to look, feel and sound like. It was an excellent tour and the actor really good at playing the part of a gladiator. The bowl of the amphitheatre is still intact and the acoustics fantastic, even with one actor’s voice, let alone the roar of the 20,000 spectators that could fill the arena. The gladiator’s story was taken from real accounts as an amalgamation of a few different stories. The explanation in the cellar underneath the amphitheatre was particularly helpful. In an almost Monty Python way, there is an aqueduct running under the amphitheatre, still bringing fresh water in to the cellar and taking away what was sometimes a ‘river of blood’ after the slaughter in the arena above. Happy birthday!

As a grown up, I had pie and ice cream for tea today. I am very pleased.