Julius Caesar

Caesar was not and is not lovable. His generosity to defeated opponents, magnanimous though it was, did not win their affection. He won his soldiers’ devotion by the victories that his intellectual ability, applied to warfare,
brought them. Yet, though not lovable, Caesar was and is attractive,
indeed fascinating. His political achievement required ability, in
effect amounting to genius, in several different fields, including
administration and generalship besides the minor arts of wire pulling
and propaganda.

In
all these, Caesar was a supreme virtuoso. But if he had not also been
something more than this he would not have been the supremely great man
that he undoubtedly was.