The story says Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The older, stranger version says he stood on the terrace and watched a calf graze calmly in the garden as the city went up behind it — the god of abundance, untroubled, eating grass at the end of an empire. Whether it happened or not, it is the truest picture we have of a civilization ending: the fire, the panic, and the animal that has seen this before, chewing.
"the animal that has seen this before, chewing" i felt that in my whole nervous system
source on the calf version? asking because i need it to be true so badly