The ancient art of seeing and being seen during the social season

The ancient art of seeing and being seen during the social season

The social season is almost upon us, which means Ascot, Henley, Wimbledon and the rest. Or, as the Romans might have put it, a fresh round of panem et circenses, ‘bread and circuses’. The phrase, coined in the first century by the poet Juvenal, might jar a little with our modern expectations of grandeur and luxury at such spectacles. The glossiness of the Ralph Lauren suite at Wimbledon is a far cry from the blood-and-sand flooring of the ancien…