Michael Grant (21 November 1914 – 4 October 2004) was an Englishclassicist,Professor of Humanity at theUniversity of Edinburgh,numismatist, and author of numerous books on ancient history.[1] His 1956 translation ofTacitus'sAnnals of Imperial Rome remains a standard of the work. Having studied and held a number of academic posts in the United Kingdom and the Middle East, he retired early to write full-time. He once described himself as "one of the very few freelancers in the field of ancient history: a rare phenomenon". As a populariser, his hallmarks were his prolific output and his unwillingness to oversimplify or talk down to his readership. He published over 70 works.
Grant was born in London, the son of Col. Maurice Grant who served in theBoer War and later wrote part of its official history. Young Grant attendedHarrow School and read classics (1933–37) atTrinity College, Cambridge. His speciality was academicnumismatics. His research fellowship thesis later became his first published book –From Imperium to Auctoritas (1946), on Roman bronze coins. Over the next decade he wrote four books onRoman coinage; his view was that the tension between the eccentricity of the Roman emperors and the traditionalism of the Roman mint made coins (used as both propaganda and currency) a unique social record.
DuringWorld War II, Grant served for a year as anintelligence officer in London after which he was assigned (1940) as the UK's firstBritish Council representative in Turkey. In this capacity he was instrumental in getting his friend, the eminent historianSteven Runciman, his position atIstanbul University. While in Turkey, he also married Anne-Sophie Beskow (they had two sons). At war's end, the couple returned to the UK with Grant's collection of almost 700 Roman coins (now in theFitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge).
After a brief return to Cambridge, Grant applied for the vacant chair of Humanity (Latin) atEdinburgh University, which he held from 1948 until 1959. During a two-year (1956–58) leave of absence he also served as vice-chancellor (president) of theUniversity of Khartoum – upon his departure, he turned the university over to the newly independent Sudanese government. He was then vice-chancellor ofQueen's University of Belfast (1959–66), after which he pursued a career as a full-time writer. According to his obituary inThe Times, he was "one of the few classical historians to win respect from [both] academics and a lay readership".[2] Immensely prolific, he wrote and edited more than 70 books of nonfiction and translation, covering topics from Roman coinage and the eruption ofMount Vesuvius to theGospels. He produced general surveys of ancient Greek, Roman and Israelite history as well as biographies of important figures such asJulius Caesar,Herod the Great,Cleopatra,Nero,Jesus,St. Peter andSt. Paul.[3]
As early as the 1950s, Grant's publishing success was somewhat controversial within the classicist community. According toThe Times:
Grant's approach to classical history was beginning to divide critics. Numismatists felt that his academic work was beyond reproach, but some academics balked at his attempt to condense a survey of Roman literature into 300 pages, and felt (in the words of one reviewer) that "even the most learned and gifted of historians should observe a speed-limit". The academics would keep cavilling, but the public kept buying.[4]
From 1966 until his death, Grant lived with his wife inGattaiola, a village nearLucca in Tuscany. His autobiography,My First Eighty Years, appeared in 1994.
From Imperium to Auctoritas: A Historical Study of Aes Coinage in the Roman Empire, 49 B.C.–A.D. 14 (1946), Cambridge University Press; rev. ed., (1971).
Aspects of the Principate of Tiberius: Historical Comments on the Colonial Coinage Issued Outside Spain (1950), New York:American Numismatic Society (Series: Numismatic Notes and Monographs, no. 116).
Roman Anniversary Issues: An Exploratory Study of the Numismatic and Medallic Commemoration of Anniversary Years, 49 B.C. – A.D. 375. (1950),Cambridge University Press
Romans with Don Pottinger (1960), Thomas Nelson and Sons; reprinted 1966.
The World of Rome (1960; rev. eds., 19??/1974/1987) Weidenfeld & Nicolson 'History of Civilisation' series
Report of the Commonwealth Conference on the Teaching of English as a Second Language (1961), Uganda Government Printer.
The Ancient Mediterranean (1961; rev. ed., 1969)
Myths of the Greeks and Romans (1962; new biblio: 1986 & 1995)ISBN0-452-01162-0
Greece and Rome: The Birth of Western Civilization (1964; rev. ed., 1986)
The Civilizations of Europe (1965)
Cambridge: A Living Tradition, introduction by Noel Annan (1966), Weidenfeld & Nicolson; (1966), Reynal & Co.; second edition (1976), Mowbrays; (1976) Alden Press; third edition (1988) Pevensey Press.
The Gladiators (1967)
The Climax of Rome: The Final Achievements of the Ancient World, AD 161–337 (1968; rev. eds., 19??/1974) Weidenfeld & Nicolson 'History of Civilisation' series
The Jews in the Roman World (1973; rev. ed., 1984)
Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology, with John Hazel (1973),G. & C. Merriam Co; revised edition asGods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary (1985), Dorset Press. French translationLe Who's who de la mythologie (1975), Editions Seghers. German translationLexikon der antiken Mythen und Gestalten (1976), Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag; reprinted 1980, 1986, 1996. Italian translationDizionario della mitologica classica (1979), Sugarco Edizioni; reprinted 1986. Italian translation (1989), Club degli editori. Japanese translationGirishia Roma shinwa jiten (1998), Shohan. British edition reprinted asRoutledge Who's Who in Classical Mythology (1993), Routledge; reprinted asWho's Who in Classical Mythology 2001, 2002, 2004, Routledge. Polish translationKto jest kim w mitologii klasycyznej (2000), Zysk is-ka Wydawn.
Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum (1974)
The Twelve Caesars (1975)
Erotic Art in Pompeii: The Secret Collection of the National Museum of Naples (1975), London:Octopus Books Ltd; Photos by Antonia Mulas, Collection descriptions by Antonio De Simone and Maria Teresa Merella (Original publication in Italian, 1974)
The Visible Past: Greek and Roman History from Archaeology, 1960–1990 (1990) [a.k.a.The Visible Past: An Archaeological Reinterpretation of Ancient History]
The Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990.ISBN978-0-02-028560-1. Revised edition; first published 1976.
Founders of the Western World: A History of Greece and Rome (1991) [a.k.a.A Short History of Classical Civilization]
Greeks and Romans: A Social History (1992) [a.k.a.A Social History of Greece and Rome]
The Emperor Constantine (1993) [a.k.a.Constantine the Great: The Man and His Times (1994)]
The Antonines: The Roman Empire in Transition (1994)
St Peter: A Biography (1994)
My First Eighty Years (1994),Autobiography
The Sayings of the Bible (1994), Duckworth Sayings Series
Greek and Roman Historians: Information and Misinformation (1995)
Art in the Roman Empire (1995)
The Severans: The Changed Roman Empire (1996)
From Rome to Byzantium: The Fifth Century (1998)
Collapse and Recovery of the Roman Empire (1999; series: Routledge Key Guides)
"Translating Latin Prose",ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, Vol. 2, No. 2; April 1971. (Reprinted in Radice William and Barbara Reynolds (1987),The Translator's Art: Essays in Honor of Betty Radice, Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp 81–91.)
Foreword (1993), In: Reprint ofLiddell Hart, B.H.,Scipio Africanus, Greater than Napoleon (1994), New York:Da Capo Press, pp v–xi.
Entry, "Julius Caesar" [Review ofthe 1953 film], In: Carnes, Mark C., ed. (1995),Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies, New York:Henry Holt and Company (Series: A Society of American Historians Book), pp 44–47.
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