[Mr Ramsbotham]

Herodotus placed Xerxes army at a million. Modern historians say it might have been as few as 35,000.

An understandable exaggeration, since they didn't have a word that was the equivalent of "shitload."

[Hieronymus]

You make a good point. “shitload” and “many orders of magnitude” and “!!!!!!” are more or less interchangeable.