Borgia, Cesare, BAWR juh, CHEH zah reh (1475?-1507), was an Italian political leader and a cruel, ambitious man. His ruthlessness attracted the attention of Niccolo Machiavelli, a major Italian political thinker and writer. Machiavelli, in his famous book, The Prince (written in 1513 and published in 1532), praised Cesare as the model of a clever, unscrupulous ruler who would do anything to keep power.