Ok fine, too general...here's a new one...
His memoirs wove tales of these,
But his enemies disagreed,
Instead they told of these,
And he wasn't quite the hero,
He'd made himself out to be
That was so the second thing I thought of when I first read the riddle, with that wenus being the first. But I thoughts to myself, "Self, that's probably not the answer. Let's go with something else."