Peter Green

Peter Morris Green (22 December 1924 – 16 September 2024) was an English classical scholar and novelist noted for his works on the Greco-Persian Wars, Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age of ancient history, generally regarded as spanning the era from the death of Alexander in 323 BC up to either the date of the Battle of Actium or the death of Augustus in 14 AD.

Green's most famous books are Alexander of Macedon, a historical biography first issued in 1970, then in a revised and expanded edition in 1974, which was first published in the United States in 1991; his Alexander to Actium, a general account of the Hellenistic Age, and other works. He was the author of a translation of the Satires of the Roman poet Juvenal, now in its third edition. He also contributed poems to many journals, including to Arion and the Southern Humanities Review.

Early life and career Green was born in London on 22 December 1924. He went to school at Charterhouse. During World War II, he served with the Royal Air Force in Burma. In Firpo's Bar in Calcutta, he met and became friendly with future novelist, Paul Scott, who later used elements of Green's character for the figure of Sergeant Guy Perron in The Raj Quartet.

After the war, Green attended Trinity College, Cambridge, where he achieved a Double First in Classics, winning the Craven Scholarship and Studentship in 1950. He subsequently wrote historical novels and worked as a journalist, in the capacity of fiction critic for the Daily Telegraph (1953–63), book columnist for the Yorkshire Post (1961–62), television critic for The Listener (1962–1963), film critic for John O'London's (1961–1963), as well as contributing to other journals.

Green was a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.

At the time of his death, Green was working with Glenn Storey on a new translation of the works of Herodotus with full commentaries. That work is expected to be published in 2025.

Personal life and death In 1954, Green married Lalage Isobel Pulvertaft, a novelist and Egyptologist. They had three children, including Sarah Green.

Green's second marriage was to classicist and ancient historian Carin M. C. Green, who died in 2015.

Peter Green died in Iowa City on 16 September 2024, at the age of 99.