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