Peter Connolly

A renowned British scholar of the ancient world, Peter Connolly was born in 1935. He is a Greek and Roman military equipment historian, reconstructional archaeologist and illustrator. A research Fellow at Oxford in England, and a talented artist, his illustrations are both accurate and detailed. He is a regular contributor to such publications as the Journal of Roman Military Equipment and Roman Frontier Studies.

He has written and illustrated several books about the ancient world aimed at chidlren. These include Pompeii, Greece and Rome at War, The Greek Armies, The Roman Army, and the award-winning Legend of Odysseus.  Connolly appears regularly on television as an expert on ancient armies' equipment. During the 1980s, he presented a series for United Kingdom schools entitled An Archaeological Background to the Gospels, in which he travelled to ancient sites in Israel, illustrating the programmes with his own paintings.  Many of these also appeared in his book Living in the Time of Jesus of Nazareth.

He studied at the Brighton College of Arts and Crafts, writing his first book, The Roman Army, in 1975. He became a member of the Society of Antiquaries in 1984, and a year later was awarded an honorary research fellowship at the Institute of Archaeology of the University College London.