MICHAEL GRANT OBITUARY Publique Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 41, October 10, 2004, Article 3
MICHAEL GRANT OBITUARY
[An obituary of prolific numismatic author Michael Grant
was just published October 8, 2004. Here are some
excerpts. -Editor]"Professor Michael Grant, who died on Monday aged 89,
was a don at Cambridge, Professor of Humanity (Latin) at
Edinburgh, and vice-chancellor at the Universities of
Khartoum and Queen's, Belfast, but was best known as a
prolific populariser of ancient history who published nearly
50 books on the Greeks, Romans and early Christianity.""As well as scholarly publications on the coinage of Rome
(he was a distinguished numismatist), he produced biographies
of Julius Caesar, Nero, Herod, Cleopatra, Jesus, St Peter
and St Paul; accounts of the literature, history, art, mythology
and social life of Greece and Rome; and found time to
examine the Middle Ages and ancient Israel.""Michael Grant was born in London on November 21 1914,
the only son of Colonel Maurice Grant, who had served in
the Boer War and later wrote part of its official history, before
covering the Balkan Wars for the Daily Mail and rising to
become an obituarist - though he was sacked for failing to get
up in the night to update Kitchener's obituary in 1916. His
mother Muriel was of Danish stock, and descended from
Jorgen Jorgensen, who staged an unsuccessful coup in
Iceland in 1809.""He received many academic awards and prizes from
numismatic societies. His Who's Who in Classical Mythology
(with John Hazel, 1973) won the Prima Latina. His most
recent book was Sick Caesars (2000). He was president of
the Virgil Society (1963-66) and of the Classical Association
(1978-9). His club was the Athenaeum. He received the OBE
in 1946 and was advanced to CBE in 1958."To read the full obituary, see: Full Stroy
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