Master of the Universe

Constantine inscribed these words on the pedestal:— Oh Christ! king and master of the universe, I consecrate this humble tower, this sceptre, and the power of Rome, to thee!

First, by them made obstinate by the onetime masters of the universe.

The Masters of the Universe were a set of lurid, rapacious plastic dolls that his otherwise perfect daughter liked to play with. […] On Wall Street he and a few others—how many?—three hundred, four hundred, five hundred?—had become precisely that. . . Masters of the Universe. There was . . . no limit whatsoever!