Peter Astbury Brunt FBA (23 June 1917 – 5 November 2005) was a British academic and ancient historian.
[2] The decision to study modern history was based on his belief that his Ancient Greek, specifically his composition, was not good enough to win a scholarship to read classics.
[2] His main duties involved the relinquishing of French ships, and dealing with the legal and diplomatic fallout from this.
[6] His work as a civil servant allowed him to develop some skill as an administrator and afforded him experiences that he might not have had as a student.
Notably, during air-raid duties he made the acquaintance of his fellow worker Violet Bonham Carter, and in the Ministry of Shipping he started a long friendship with the numismatist Derek Allen.
[5] There, he undertook research on the influence of Stoicism at Rome under the direction of Professor Hugh Last,[2] and on the relations between governed and governors in the Roman Empire.
[1][2] He found living in St Andrews difficult as he had to vacate his rooms during the summer months and this disrupted his research.
[4] He also lectured on Thucydides in the first few years, and he wrote a revised edition of Jowett's translation of History of the Peloponnesian War with a new introduction in 1963.
[1] During this time he completed two books.,[6] one of which—Italian Manpower, 225 BC-AD 14 (Oxford University Press, 1971)—was arguably the most innovative book about Roman history written in English since the Second World War.
In 1970, he was elected Camden Professor of Ancient History and joined Brasenose College, University of Oxford, as a professorial fellow.