BREAD and circuses, readers of this paper won’t need reminding, were said to be the two ways the Roman elite appeased the citizens of its vast empire. With their appetites sated and minds distracted, there was little risk of an uprising until, of course, Spartacus came along.

[[{"fid":"6847","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"2"}}]]Somewhat appropriately, Pascal Jacob’s The Circus: A Visual History — a hefty and vibrant collection of images depicting the age-old spectacle – begins with the Colosseum, the world’s most famous amphitheatre, where Roman citizens could expect an afternoon of chariot racing, wild animals, combat and bloodshed.

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Fast-forward 2,000 years and, though tastes have, perhaps, changed a little, the desire for humans to gather and bear witness in a shared experience is still very strong. The thread that links the crowds of antiquity with the arenas of today, be they stadiums, theatres or studios, is the circus, which has endured and flourished across cultures, continents and time.

For many years surviving as spontaneous entertainment for those who thronged to the burgeoning markets, fairs and building sites of Europe, the circus was not a place but an ephemeral congregation of performers — jugglers, acrobats, contortionists — who nonetheless met, shared their skills and joined forces in travelling brigades.

Immediately apparent in Jacob’s book is that the circus has been infinitely adaptable, with space in its cavernous tent for an endless variety of people who wished to live by their skills or who had little alternative but to do so. For many, such as itinerant communities or outcasts, a life on the road was the only option. In plying their trade from place to place they were rewarded for their performance but not trusted to linger.

As cultures met across dusty trading routes the circus became an opportunity to gaze upon exotic animals, exhilarating horsemanship, astonishing acrobatics and the human comedy amply provided by the clowns. Eccentric and disguised characters whose origins lay in the ribaldry of medieval marketplaces, they proved a firm favourite with audiences and entertained not only with their slapstick antics but also with subversive behaviour challenging authority and turning convention on its head.

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The circus has been a truly universal entertainment, accessible to all regardless of language or education, and with the advent of the railways the circus travelled vast distances across whole continents. The mighty circuses of Russia came to reflect the eagerness of the state to proudly display its citizens’ superhuman abilities, while in the US their scale was fuelled by a keenness to profit from a glimpse of the country’s Wild West.

Behemoths of entertainment, such as the Hagenbeck and Barnum & Bailey circuses, pitched their Big Tops all over the world with military precision, with vast convoys travelling by night between expectant towns.

Today, though it competes with the myriad ways humans have found to keep themselves amused, the circus is travelling still, its arrival prompting excitement at the new and its departure offering the mystique of impermanence.

The Circus: A Visual History is published by Bloomsbury, price £21.