In his early fifties, he had his affair with 20-year old Cleopatra. 'We grow strong through pity and generosity,' he observed: high-minded, or Machiavellian? Or both? Catullus once wrote some cruel verses about him, but the moment he apologised, Caesar promptly invited him round to dinner. He certainly didn't suffer from low self-esteem but neither did he harbour the petty vindictiveness that often goes with it. Proud Caesar generally, if not always, forgave his enemies.

It may not sound much, but by the standards of antiquity this showed real thoughtfulness. While fulfilling his promise, as any good Roman should, he did take the trouble to have their throats cut first, before the slow agony of crucifixion killed them. Soon enough his comrades returned with the 50 talents, Caesar was released, sailed to Miletus, raised a force, returned. However, Caesar also promised that after they released him, he would return and have them all crucified.

They apparently admired the magnificent fearlessness of this haughty youth, and a certain Stockholm syndrome developed between them. He also scolded them for talking when he was trying to get to sleep at night, and called them 'illiterate barbarians' when they were unimpressed by his poetry. Caesar laughed their demand to scorn, saying he was worth at least 50. He was seized with his comrades off the island of Pharmacussa, his captors demanding a ransom of 20 talents of silver. On his return voyage, there occurred that extraordinary and revealing incident with the pirates, which 'in so many ways', as Goldsworthy says, 'encapsulates the legend of Caesar'. He was also famed for his mercifulness to his conquered enemies responded to his own troops' rude songs about his bedroom antics with a cheerful and tolerant laugh and you can't help warming to a man so upset about his receding hairline that he wore his laurel wreath on all possible occasions to hide it. His conquest of Gaul certainly resulted in the deaths of tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands, but brought along with it a 500-year Pax Romana with all its associated benefits of roads, bridges, baths, etc (see Monty Python's Life of Brian for further details). Oh, and if this counts as a sign of greatness too, a highly successful bedder of other men's wives. About Caesar's greatness, though, there can be no argument: charismatic, daring, brilliant, charming, a supreme political operator, a brilliant military tactician and improviser, a writer of admirable simplicity in an age of tiresome floridity. Our definition of what constitutes 'good' nowadays being utterly different to that of the Romans anyway, and morality being rather more time-tied than we like to admit, arguments about any historical figure's goodness or badness tend to be fairly worthless. Julius Caesar was great, if not good, acknowledges Goldsworthy in this definitive and entertaining new biography.

Adrian goldsworthy cesar