[thaumasiotes]

> there were a bunch of German "emperors" although they called themselves kings.

What does that mean? "King" was the word for the concept in every language except Latin, where it was still the word for the concept, but was avoided due to a cultural taboo.

A Roman emperor held many titles. English "emperor" derives from imperator, "commander", an honorific title given to generals. He was addressed as Caesar, originally a personal name, which survives in the German Kaiser and the Russian Tsar. To the Greeks, he was basileus, "king", because there was no Greek taboo on the word "king".

There was no title analogous to Near Eastern "king of kings" or Chinese 皇帝, explicitly set above the level of a "king".