`I replaced ``a metaphor for`` in the first sentence of the article with ``metonymic for``. Bread and circuses are not a metaphor for the appeasement of the people: they really are methods of appeasement; they are examples. As such they stand for it metonymically; if one talked about giving the people a bottle of hot milk to calm them down, or putting them down for a nap, (things you wouldn't or could give to a population), you would be speaking metaphorically.  `