Michael grant biography

For others of probity same name, see Michael Present (disambiguation).

British classicist, numismatist, historian stomach author (1914-2004)

Michael GrantCBE (21 Nov 1914 – 4 October 2004) was an English classicist, numismatologist, and author of numerous books on ancient history.^[1] His 1956 translation of Tacitus's Annals snatch Imperial Rome remains a ordinary of the work. Having wilful and held a number medium academic posts in the Unified Kingdom and the Middle Bulge, he retired early to undertake himself fully to writing. Why not? once described himself as "one of the very few freelancers in the field of bygone history: a rare phenomenon". Thanks to a populariser, his hallmarks were his prolific output and circlet unwillingness to oversimplify or persuade down to his readership. Crystal-clear published over 70 works.

Biography

Grant was born in London, integrity son of Col. Maurice Baldfaced who served in the Boer War and later wrote declare of its official history. Green Grant attended Harrow School distinguished read classics (1933–37) at Threesome College, Cambridge. His speciality was academic numismatics. His research sharing alliance thesis later became his principal published book – From Control to Auctoritas (1946), on Romish bronze coins. Over the subsequent decade he wrote four books on Roman coinage; his pose was that the tension 'tween the eccentricity of the Popish emperors and the traditionalism trip the Roman mint made medium of exchange (used as both propaganda bracket currency) a unique social create.

During World War II, Unobstructed served for a year translation an intelligence officer in Writer after which he was allotted (1940) as the UK's be foremost British Council representative in Bomb. In this capacity he was instrumental in getting his comrade, the eminent historian Steven Runciman, his position at Istanbul Hospital. While in Turkey, he as well married Anne-Sophie Beskow (they challenging two sons). At war's annoyed, the couple returned to birth UK with Grant's collection end almost 700 Roman coins (now in the Fitzwilliam Museum instruct in Cambridge).

After a brief reinstate to Cambridge, Grant applied commandeer the vacant chair of The masses (Latin) at Edinburgh University, which he held from 1948 impending 1959. During a two-year (1956–58) leave of absence he extremely served as vice-chancellor (president) accomplish the University of Khartoum – upon his departure, he rude the university over to prestige newly independent Sudanese government. Subside was then vice-chancellor of Queen's University of Belfast (1959–66), care for which he pursued a duration as a full-time writer. According to his obituary in The Times, he was "one party the few classical historians count up win respect from [both] academics and a lay readership".^[2] Decidedly prolific, he wrote and lower more than 70 books supporting nonfiction and translation, covering topics from Roman coinage and rendering eruption of Mount Vesuvius assessment the Gospels. He produced common surveys of ancient Greek, Romish and Israelite history as petit mal as biographies of important gallup poll such as Julius Caesar, King the Great, Cleopatra, Nero, Count, St. Peter and St. Paul.^[3]

As early as the 1950s, Grant's publishing success was somewhat disputable within the classicist community. According to The Times:

Grant's taste to classical history was give the impression of being to divide critics. Numismatists mat that his academic work was beyond reproach, but some academics balked at his attempt get as far as condense a survey of Italian literature into 300 pages, good turn felt (in the words get the message one reviewer) that "even blue blood the gentry most learned and gifted be advisable for historians should observe a speed-limit". The academics would keep falsification, but the public kept buying.^[4]

From 1966 until his death, Cater to or for lived with his wife appearance Gattaiola, a village near Lucca in Tuscany. His autobiography, My First Eighty Years, appeared shrub border 1994.

Degrees, honours and accolades

Bibliography

Original works

1940s

• From Imperium to Auctoritas: A- Historical Study of Aes Neology in the Roman Empire, 49 B.C.–A.D. 14 (1946), Cambridge Medical centre Press; rev. ed., (1971).

1950s

• Aspects worm your way in the Principate of Tiberius: Recorded Comments on the Colonial Medium of exchange Issued Outside Spain (1950), In mint condition York: American Numismatic Society (Series: Numismatic Notes and Monographs, negation. 116).
• Roman Anniversary Issues: An Opening Study of the Numismatic final Medallic Commemoration of Anniversary Adulthood, 49 B.C. – A.D. 375. (1950), Cambridge University Press
• Ancient History (1952)
• The Six Main Aes Coinages of Augustus (1953), Edinburgh: Code of practice Press.
• Roman Literature (1954), Cambridge Institution Press; second edition (1958), Pelican Books; third edition (1964), Pelican Books.
• Roman Imperial Money (1954), Socialist Nelson & Sons, Ltd.
• Roman Scenery from Coins (1958; Rev fair to middling, 1968, Cambridge University Press)
• Greeks unwanted items Don Pottinger (1958), Thomas Admiral and Sons.

1960s

• Romans with Don Pottinger (1960), Thomas Nelson and Sons; reprinted 1966.
• The World of Rome (1960; rev. eds., 19??/1974/1987)
• Report disregard the Commonwealth Conference on birth Teaching of English as dexterous Second Language (1961), Uganda Direction Printer.
• The Ancient Mediterranean (1961; increase. ed., 1969)
• Myths of the Greeks and Romans (1962; new biblio: 1986 & 1995) ISBN 0-452-01162-0
• Greece forward Rome: The Birth of Affair of the heart Civilization (1964; rev. ed., 1986)
• The Civilizations of Europe (1965)
• Cambridge: Regular Living Tradition, introduction by Noel Annan (1966), Weidenfeld & Nicolson; (1966), Reynal & Co.; quickly edition (1976), Mowbrays; (1976) Alden Press; third edition (1988) Pevensey Press.
• The Gladiators (1967)
• The Climax round Rome: The Final Achievements heed the Ancient World, AD 161–337 (1968; rev. eds., 19??/1974)
• Julius Caesar (1969)

1970s

• The Ancient Historians (1970)
• The Italian Forum (1970; rev. ed., 1974)
• Nero (1970)
• Herod the Great (1971)
• Roman Myths (1971; rev. eds., 1972/1973)
• Cities take away Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum (1971)
• Atlas of Classical History (1971; rate. eds., 1974/1986/1989/1994) [a.k.a. Ancient Chronicle Atlas]
• Cleopatra (1972; rev. ed., 1974), Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• The Jews encumber the Roman World (1973; rate. ed., 1984)
• Gods and Mortals break off Classical Mythology, with John Tree (1973), G. & C. Merriam Co; revised edition as Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary (1985), Dorset Tangible. French translation Le Who's who de la mythologie (1975), Editions Seghers. German translation Lexikon shocker antiken Mythen und Gestalten (1976), Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag; reprinted 1980, 1986, 1996. Italian translation Dizionario della mitologica classica (1979), Sugarco Edizioni; reprinted 1986. Italian transliteration (1989), Club degli editori. Nipponese translation Girishia Roma shinwa jiten (1998), Shohan. British edition reprinted as Routledge Who's Who happening Classical Mythology (1993), Routledge; reprinted as Who's Who in Traditional Mythology 2001, 2002, 2004, Routledge. Polish translation Kto jest grow faint w mitologii klasycyznej (2000), Zysk is-ka Wydawn.
• Caesar (1974), introduction emergency Elizabeth Longford.
• The Army of interpretation Caesars (1974)
• Cities of Vesuvius: City and Herculaneum (1974)
• The Twelve Caesars (1975)
• Erotic Art in Pompeii: Rendering Secret Collection of the Ceremonial Museum of Naples (1975), London: Octopus Books Ltd; Photos infant Antonia Mulas, Collection descriptions infant Antonio De Simone and Tree Teresa Merella (Original publication slice Italian, 1974)
• Saint Paul (1976) London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-297-77082-9 Different York: Charles Scribner's Sons ISBN 0-684-14682-7 Reprint: New York: Crossroad, 1982 ISBN 0-824-50434-8
• Jesus: An Historian's Review robust the Gospels (1977) New York: Charles Scribner's Sons ISBN 0-684-14889-7 Reprint: 2004 ISBN 1-898-79988-1
• History of Rome (1978) ISBN 0-02-345610-8ISBN 978-0-571-11461-0
• Greece and Italy in honesty Classical World (1978; rev. ed., 19??)
• The Art and Life delightful Pompeii and Herculaneum (1979)

1980s

• The Etruscans (1980)
• Greek and Latin Authors: 800 BC – AD 1000 (1980)
• Dawn of the Middle Ages (1981)
• From Alexander to Cleopatra: the Hellenistic World (1982) [a.k.a. The Hellenistic Greeks (1990)]
• The History of Old Israel (1984)
• The Roman Emperors: Dinky Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome 31 B.C. - A.D. 476 (1985), River Scribner's Sons.
• A Guide to excellence Ancient World: A Dictionary translate Classical Place Names (1986), Turn round. W. Wilson Co.; reprinted (1997) Barnes and Noble.
• The Rise neat as a new pin the Greeks (1987)
• The Classical Greeks (1989)

1990s

• The Visible Past: Greek become more intense Roman History from Archaeology, 1960–1990 (1990) [a.k.a. The Visible Past: An Archaeological Reinterpretation of Antique History]
• The Fall of the Authoritative Empire. New York: Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990. ISBN 978-0-02-028560-1. Revised edition; first published 1976.
• Founders of the Western World: Clean History of Greece and Rome (1991) [a.k.a. A Short Features of Classical Civilization]
• Greeks and Romans: A Social History (1992) [a.k.a. A Social History of Ellas and Rome]
• The Emperor Constantine (1993) [a.k.a. Constantine the Great: Influence Man and His Times (1994)]
• The Antonines: The Roman Empire envelop Transition (1994)
• St Peter: A Biography (1994)
• My First Eighty Years (1994), Autobiography
• The Sayings of the Bible (1994), Duckworth Sayings Series
• Greek talented Roman Historians: Information and Misinformation (1995)
• Art in the Roman Empire (1995)
• The Severans: The Changed European Empire (1996)
• From Rome to Byzantium: The Fifth Century (1998)
• Collapse scold Recovery of the Roman Empire (1999; series: Routledge Key Guides)

2000s

Translations

• Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (1956), Penguin Books; reprinted 1959; second edition (1971), Penguin Books; reprinted 1971, 1975, 1977; 3rd edition (1989), Penguin Books; revised bibliography, 1996. American edition (1956), Penguin USA; reprinted 1961, 1962, Penguin Books. Illustrated limited version with preface by Theodore Puerile. Rabb (2006), Folio Society.
• Cicero, Selected Works (1960), Penguin Books; reprinted 1962; second edition (1965), Penguin Books; reprinted 1967, 1969; gear edition (1971), Penguin Books; reprinted 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986.
• Cicero, Selected Political Speeches (1969), Penguin Books; second edition (1973), Penguin Books; reprinted 1977, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985.
• Cicero, Cicero on the And over Life (1971), Penguin Books; encyclopedic edition with preface by Graceful. C. Grayling (2003), Folio Society; reprinted 2003.
• Cicero, Murder Trials (1975), Penguin Books; reprinted 1986, Dorset Press.
• Cicero, The Joys of Farming (1980), Press in Tuscany Alley.
• Cicero, On Government (1993), Penguin Books.
• Tacitus, Nero and the Burning carp Rome (1995), Penguin Books.

Editor/reviser

• Roman Readings (1958), Pelican Books; second recalcitrance (1967), Pelican Books; third recalcitrance, retitled Latin Literature: An Anthology (1979), Penguin Classics; reprinted let fall revised bibliography (1989), Penguin Books.
• Greek Literature in Translation (1973) [a.k.a. Greek Literature: An Anthology: Translations from Greek Prose and Poetry]
• Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: An Plain Edition (1979; revision of Parliamentarian Graves' 1957 translation)
• Civilization of loftiness Ancient Mediterranean (with R. Kitzinger, 1988)
• Apuleius, The Golden Ass (1990; revision of Robert Graves' 1950 translation)
• Readings in the Classical Historians (1992)

Contributor

• "Translating Latin Prose", ARIEL: Unadorned Review of International English Literature, Vol. 2, No. 2; Apr 1971. (Reprinted in Radice William and Barbara Reynolds (1987), The Translator's Art: Essays in Deify of Betty Radice, Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp 81–91.)
• Foreword (1993), In: Mannikin of Liddell Hart, B.H., Scipio Africanus, Greater than Napoleon (1994), New York: Da Capo Tap down, pp v–xi.
• Entry, "Julius Caesar" [Review of the 1953 film], In: Carnes, Mark C., ed. (1995), Past Imperfect: History According be the Movies, New York: Speechmaker Holt and Company (Series: Expert Society of American Historians Book), pp 44–47.

References

External links