Michael Grant – Classisist

Michael Grant was an English classisist, numismatist, and author of numerous popular books on ancient history. His 1956 translation of Tacitus’s Annals of Imperial Rome remains a standard of the work. He once described himself as “one of the very few freelances in the field of ancient history: a rare phenomenon”. As a popularizer, his hallmarks were his prolific output and his unwillingness to oversimplify or talk down to his readership.

Books in order of publication:

  • From Imperium to Auctoritas (1946; 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
  • Ancient History (1952)
  • The Six Main Aes Coinages of Augustus (1953), Edinburgh: University Press.
  • Roman Imperial Money (1954), Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd.
  • Roman History from Coins (1958; Rev ed, 1968, Cambridge University Press)
  • The World of Rome (1960; rev. eds., 19??/1974/1987)
  • The Ancient Mediterranean (1961; rev. ed., 1969)
  • Myths of the Greeks and Romans (1962; new biblio: 1986 & 1995)
  • Greece and Rome: The Birth of Western Civilization (1964; rev. ed., 1986)
  • The Civilizations of Europe (1965)
  • The Gladiators (1967)
  • The Climax of Rome: The Final Achievements of the Ancient World, AD 161–337 (1968; rev. eds., 19??/1974)
  • Julius Caesar (1969)
  • The Ancient Historians (1970)
  • The Roman Forum (1970; rev. ed., 1974)
  • Nero (1970)
  • Herod the Great (1971)
  • Roman Myths (1971; rev. eds., 1972/1973)
  • Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum (1971)
  • Atlas of Classical History (1971; rev. eds., 1974/1986/1989/1994) [a.k.a. Ancient History Atlas]
  • Cleopatra (1972; rev. ed., 1974), Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • The Jews in the Roman World (1973; rev. ed., 1984)
  • Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology, with John Hazel (1973), G. & C. Merriam Co
  • Who’s Who in Classical Mythology, with John Hazel (1973; Slightly revised 1993 & 2002)
  • Caesar (1974), introduction by Elizabeth Longford (Reprint of 1969 book?)
  • The Army of the Caesars (1974)
  • 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 Fall of the Roman Empire (1976; rev. ed., 1990)
  • Saint Paul (1976) London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels (1977) New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons
  • History of Rome (1978)
  • Greece and Italy in the Classical World (1978; rev. ed., 19??)
  • The Art and Life of Pompeii and Herculaneum (1979)
  • The Etruscans (1980)
  • Greek and Latin Authors: 800 BC – AD 1000 (1980)
  • Dawn of the Middle Ages (1981) — coffee table book
  • From Alexander to Cleopatra: the Hellenistic World (1982) [a.k.a. The Hellenistic Greeks (1990)]
  • The History of Ancient Israel (1984)
  • The Roman Emperors: A Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome 31 B.C. – A.D. 476 (1985)
  • Gods and Mortals in Classical Mythology: A Dictionary, with John Hazel (1985), Dorset Press
  • A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names (1986)
  • The Rise of the Greeks (1987)
  • The Classical Greeks (1989)
  • The Visible Past: Greek and Roman History from Archaeology, 1960–1990 (1990) [a.k.a. The Visible Past: An Archaeological Reinterpretation of Ancient History]
  • 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)
  • Sick Caesars (2000)

Translations

  • Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome (1956; Rev. ed., 1977)
  • Cicero, Selected Works (1960; Rev. eds., 1965, 1971)
  • Cicero, Selected Political Speeches (1969)
  • Cicero, Cicero on the Good Life (1971)
  • Cicero, Murder Trials (1975)
  • Cicero, On Government (1993)
%d bloggers like this: