Explanation: In the Late Roman Empire, the Emperor Honorius was said to have remarked, upon hearing that the city of Rome had been taken and sacked by barbarians for the first time in almost a thousand years - “But it has just eaten from my hand!” - as his favorite bird was also named “Rome” (Romans were not very good with names in general).
When he was corrected that it was the city which founded the Empire he ruled over that had been destroyed, he is said to have reacted with relief rather than consternation.
Regardless of whether the story is true or not, Honorius was an immensely passive and ruinous Emperor who hastened the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Perhaps no one could have saved it at that late point - but it would have been hard to hurry it along faster than Honorius did by any other intent than pure malice.
Explanation: In the Late Roman Empire, the Emperor Honorius was said to have remarked, upon hearing that the city of Rome had been taken and sacked by barbarians for the first time in almost a thousand years - “But it has just eaten from my hand!” - as his favorite bird was also named “Rome” (Romans were not very good with names in general).
When he was corrected that it was the city which founded the Empire he ruled over that had been destroyed, he is said to have reacted with relief rather than consternation.
Regardless of whether the story is true or not, Honorius was an immensely passive and ruinous Emperor who hastened the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Perhaps no one could have saved it at that late point - but it would have been hard to hurry it along faster than Honorius did by any other intent than pure malice.
Sounds somehow familiar. What administration might this be alluding to? I sense a parallel. Eh, probably my imagination.