Michael Grant

Background

Michael Grant was born on the 21st of November, 1914 in London, United Kingdom; the son of Maurice Harold Grant, a journalist with a military background, and Muriel Ethel (Jörgensen) Grant.

Education

Michael Grant studied at Harrow School. Later he attended Trinity College, Cambridge where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1936 and a Master of Arts degree in 1940.

In 1961 Michael received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Trinity College, Dublin and in 1967, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Queen’s.

Career

During World War II, Michael Grant served in the British Army as an intelligence officer and spent five years in Turkey as a representative of the British Council.

Grant began his academic career at the University of Edinburgh where he served as chair of humanity in 1949 - 1959. He also served as the first vice-chancellor of the University of Khartoum in 1956–1958, during a two-year leave of absence. He left Scotland in 1959 for Northern Ireland, where he served as president and vice-chancellor from 1959 to 1966 at Queen's University of Belfast.

By the mid-1960s, Michael was doing so well as a writer that he left the university to become a full-time author. Grant's early books focused on numismatic studies. He was convinced early on in his studies that detailed examination of the money used in Greek and Roman times could reveal considerable details about those cultures.

Among Grant’s first books are From Imperium to Auctoritas that was published in 1946, Aspects of the Principate of Tiberius: Historical Comments on the Colonial Coinage Issued outside Spain in 1950, Roman Imperial Money in 1954, and Roman History from Coins.

As a writer, Grant was notable for his lucid, often entertaining style that made his scholarly books not only useful to experts but also accessible to amateurs in the field. This was especially true after he started writing more general histories and biographies about ancient civilizations. Such books in this area include Gladiators in 1967 and revised edition in 1971, Julius Caesar in 1969, Cleopatra in 1972, The Fall of the Roman Empire: A Reappraisal in 1976, The Rise of the Greeks in 1988, A Social History of Greece and Rome in 1992, and his last book Sick Caesars in 2000, among many others that helped bring the ancient world to life for many readers.

Achievements

• Dr. Grant wrote and edited more than 70 books of nonfiction and translation, as well as numerous numismatic articles that explored his interest in the provincial mints of the early Roman Empire. His 1956 translation of Tacitus's Annals of Imperial Rome remains a standard of the work.

Works

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• book

  • A Social History of Greece and Rome

    (The well-known classical historian sheds light on the cus...)

    1992
  • Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels

    (Draws upon the advances of twentieth-century biblical sch...)

    1977
  • Myths Of The Greeks And Romans

    (The myths told by the Greeks and Romans are as important ...)

    1962
  • Roman History from Coins

    (In this 1968 study, Michael Grant examines the varied way...)

    1958
  • Sick Caesars

    (Discover the fascinating history of the Roman emperors wh...)

    2000
  • Constantine the Great: The Man and His Times

    (The author of Founders of the Western World assesses the ...)

    1993
  • Cleopatra

    (Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, was also a scholar, murderer, ...)

    1972
  • The Fall of the Roman Empire: A Reappraisal

    (Hundreds of reasons for this collapse have over the centu...)

    1976
  • Gladiators

    (Michael Grant shows you the "bloody" truth about gladiators.)

    1967
  • Julius Caesar

    (A good biography of the Roman leader - Julius caesar.)

    1969
  • History of Rome 1978
  • The Roman Emperors: A Biographical Guide to the Rulers of Imperial Rome, 31 BC-476 1984
  • The Rise of the Greeks 1988
  • Roman Imperial Money 1954

Views

Quotations: "The balance of this world is not upset by accident. It is not upset by those who blunder accidentally into wrong. Evil comes when those who know better, who have seen the pain they cause, nevertheless cause more pain".

Membership

Michael Grant was a member of the American Numismatic Society, Royal Numismatic Society, Virgil Society, and Classical Association.

• President

  Virgil Society , United Kingdom

  1963 - 1966

• Classical Association , United Kingdom

  1978 - 1979

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "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 caviling, but the public kept buying". - The Times

Connections

Michael Grant was married to Rut Anne-Sophie Beskow. They had two children, Jan Patrick Michael and Antony Harold.

Father:

Maurice Harold Grant

Mother:

Muriel Ethel (Jörgensen) Grant

Wife:

Rut Anne-Sophie Beskow

Son:

Jan Patrick Michael Grant

Son:

Antony Harold Grant