“Something has just occurred to me, Lucius Appuleius. The People are at least a responsible and well-educated lot. Pillars of Roman tradition. But—what if one day someone starts talking about the Head Count the way you’re talking about the People?”
“As long as their bellies are full, and the aediles put on a good show at the games, the Head Count are happy. To make the Head Count politically conscious, you’d have to turn the Forum Romanum into the Circus Maximus!”
(Colleen McCullough, Masters of Rome)