Suetonius was a palace official who wrote lives of the first twelve Caesars as a mix of public record and bedroom gossip. Julius is the opener: the balding conqueror who crossed the Rubicon — the little river that marked how far a general could bring an army — took a queen in Egypt, and died under senators’ knives on the Ides of March, 44 BC.

He crushes Gaul, breaks Pompey, and piles honors until the old republicans see a crown. Mercy and one-man rule arrive together. Cleopatra, the reformed calendar, the dictatorship for life: Suetonius lists virtues and vices as if a man this large could not be one thing. This is the life that turned a republic into a monarchy, told with the details schoolbooks leave out.