Peter Connolly Famous British historian Date of Birth: 08.05.1935 Country: Great Britain

Biography of Peter Connolly

Peter Connolly is a renowned British historian, researcher of ancient military history, archaeologist, and illustrator. He is a scholar at Oxford University, having graduated from the Faculty of Arts at Brighton University. In 1975, he published his first book, "The Roman Army." He is the author of numerous books, including "Pompeii," "Greece and Rome at War" (translated into Russian as "Греция и Рим. Энциклопедия военной истории"), "The Greek Armies," "The Roman Army," and the award-winning "Legend of Odysseus." His book "Colosseum: Rome's Arena of Death" (2003) dispels many myths that have been rooted in the popular consciousness since the success of the Hollywood film "Gladiator."

Connolly regularly appears on television programs as a specialist in ancient military affairs and equipment. In the 1980s, he hosted a series of shows for British schoolchildren titled "An Archaeological Background to the Gospels," during which he visited locations described in the New Testament in Israel and used his own illustrations from the book "Living in the Time of Jesus of Nazareth." He has been a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London since 1984 and was granted the title of honorary research fellow at the Institute of Archaeology at University College London in 1985.

Connolly is credited with the hypothesis that reconstructs the manipular tactics of the Roman legion. This hypothesis has gained widespread acceptance in modern historical research. The essence of the hypothesis is that the first line of the legion did not advance with intervals between maniples, as assumed by many historians, but deployed as a continuous front.