A trillion here, a trillion there…
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As we ponder the perks of the powerful, we might recall that it was on this date in 27 BCE that Octavian was granted the title “Augustus” (“revered”) as a mark of gratitude for the order and (relative) peace he established throughout the Roman Empire.
Exactly 1,564 years later, on this date in 1547, Ivan IV was crowned King of Russia; Ivan became the first Russian monarch to take the title “Tsar,” earning the sobriquet “Ivan Grozny”– “Ivan the Terrible.” (Translators note that “grozny,” while literally correctly rendered “terrible,” might more effectively be understood to mean “threatening” or “awesome”… so that Ivan might more accurately be remembered as “the Fearsome” or “The Formidable.”)
