Peter Connolly

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For the Australian politician with the same name, see Peter Connolly (Australian politician).

Peter Connolly

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

Connolly has also written and illustrated many books about the ancient world, many for children, including Pompeii, Greece and Rome at War, The Greek Armies, The Roman Army and the award-winning Legend of Odysseus,

He appears regularly on television as an expert on ancient armies and their equipment, and in the 1980s presented a series for UK schools called 'An Archaeological Background to the Gospels' in which he travelled ancient sites in Israel, illustrating the programmes with his own paintings, many of which appeared in his book 'Living in the Time of Jesus of Nazareth'.

Connolly studied at the Brighton College of Arts and Crafts and wrote 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.