Pierre Grimal

Pierre Grimal (November 21, 1912, in Paris – November 2, 1996, in Paris) was a French historian, classicist and Latinist. Fascinated by the Greek and Roman civilizations, he did much to promote the cultural inheritance of the classical world, both among specialists and the general public. Admitted to the École Normale Supérieure in 1933, and received third at the "agrégation de lettres" in 1935, he was member of the École française de Rome (1935–1937) then taught Latin at a Rennes lycée. Then he was active as a professor of Roman civilization at the faculties of Caen and Bordeaux, and finally at the Sorbonne for thirty years. He published studies on the Roman civilization, of which many volumes to the "Que sais-je?" series, and translations of Latin classical authors (Cicero, Seneca the Younger, Tacitus, Plautus, Terence). On his retirement, he also published biographies and fictionalized histories (Mémoires d’Agrippine, le procès Néron), more intended for the general public. At the end of his life, he campaigned for the safeguarding of literary teaching. All published in Paris: Dictionnaire de la mythologie grecque et romaine, published by PUF, 1951, fifth edition in 1976 Romans grecs et latins, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1958 Le siècle des Scipions, Rome et l’Hellénisme au temps des guerres puniques, Aubier, second edition in 1975 La littérature latine, PUF Que sais-je? n° 376, 1965 La mythologie grecque, PUF Que sais-je? n° 582, ninth edition in 1978 L’art des jardins, PUF Que sais-je? n° 618, third edition 1974 Les villes romaines, PUF Que sais-je? n° 657, first edition 1954, seventh edition in 1990 Le siècle d’Auguste, PUF Que sais-je? n° 676, 1965 Dans les pas des césars, Hachette, 1955 Horace, Editions du Seuil, 1955 La civilisation romaine, Arthaud, fourth edition in 1970 Italie retrouvée, PUF, 1979 Nous partons pour Rome, PUF, third edition 1977 L’amour à Rome, Belles Lettres, 1979 Mythologies, Larousse, 1964 Histoire mondiale de la femme, Nouvelle Librairie de France, 1965 Etude de chronologie cicéronienne, Les Belles Lettres, 1977 Essai sur l’art poétique d’Horace, Paris SEDES, 1968 Le guide de l’étudiant latiniste, PUF, 1971 La guerre civile de Petrone, dans ses rapports avec la Pharsale, Les Belles Lettres, 1977 Le Lyrisme à Rome, PUF, 1978 Sénèque, ou la conscience de l’Empire, Les Belles Lettres, 1978 Le théâtre antique, PUF Que sais-je number 1732, 1978 Le Quercy de Pierre Grimal, Arthaud, 1978 Sénèque, PUF Que sais-je number 1950, 1981 Jérôme Carcopino, un historien au service de l’humanisme (in collaboration with Cl.