Most of us think of chemical weapons as a twentieth century phenomenon. But did you know that one existed in the medieval world as well? We call that chemical weapon Greek fire.

For many, the term chemical weapon has negative connotations. We recall the gas mask as an essential piece of equipment for World War I soldiers. Gas was a common form of death for the Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust, as well. If you remember the 1980s, you might remember the Anfal Campaign where Iraq’s Saddam Hussein used chemicals against Iraq’s Kurdish population. Agent Orange and similar defoliants were a horrible part of the Vietnam War. Their impact continues fifty years later. The negative list is a long one.

This stems from the modern use of chemical weapons to kill large groups at once. We also recognize that some chemicals enter the water supply and thus the bodies of people who drink polluted water. In the ancient world, however their use was mainly for warfare during battles.

What Was Greek Fire?

Greek fire was a weapon used by the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages. The exact chemical composition used by the Byzantines is unknown. However, we have enough descriptions of how the weapon worked that historians have a reasonable idea of what was in it.

The miraculous power of Greek fire was that it was a jelly-like substance that burned and could not be extinguished by water. Thus, it was a naval weapon without equal. Petroleum was a major ingredient. Pitch, resin, naphtha, sulfur, saltpeter, and turpentine were in the mixture as well. We just don’t know the exact recipe and quantities of each. It’s possible other ingredients were present in small quantities. I described it to a Vietnam veteran friend once. He said, “Oh, yeah, that’s napalm.” The Byzantines also called it liquid fire, sea fire, and constructed fire.

One Norman source states the following. “First, they gather the resin from pines and other such evergreen trees, which burns easily. It is rubbed together with sulphur and placed in reed tubes, through which the man who is playing the instrument blows it out with a strong, sustained breath. It then comes into contact with the flame that is lit at the end of the device. It ignites and falls like a lightning flash on the enemy’s face.”

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Origins of Greek Fire

A pair of stories exist of how the weapon came into existence. Most credit Callinicus of Heliopolis with inventing the mixture in the early 670s. Just in time, too, from the Byzantine perspective. Arab armies had just conquered Syria and had their sights set on the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. Their siege failed, however, with Greek fire getting much credit. The Byzantines used it to disperse the Arab fleet at the Battle of Cyzicus. (Incidentally, Callinicus was a Jewish refugee who fled Syria after it fell to the Arabs. Sometimes, treating refugees well pays dividends.)

However, we also have accounts of similar substances from as early as the rebellion of the general Vitalian in 512. Some reports state that Vitalian’s fleet was “incinerated” in a naval battle, essentially ending his rebellion. The question is whether this was Greek fire or a similar substance. (Indeed, other ancient civilizations had learned to combine explosive ingredients and ignite them with fire. Reports describe the Assyrians doing so in the 800s BCE.)

How to Use It

The genius of the Byzantine device is that they created a delivery mechanism. Ships would mount siphons on their prow. Iron shields protected the operators. A tube contained the mixture. Operators used air pressure to force the mixture through the siphon. In the process, it passed through a heated chamber. Thus, when the chemicals flew through the air, the heat and oxygen ignited them, making the device essentially a flame thrower. Except Greek fire was better. It didn’t burn out until the fire burned through all the fuel. Operators could point the nozzle of the flame thrower in any forward direction.

This weapon saved the hides of the Byzantines many times. The Arabs, invading Vikings, Normans, and even the Crusaders had to deal with liquid fire. The last mention we have of it comes during the thirteenth century. Sadly, like the mixture’s ingredients, the reasons it fell out of use are unknown.

Did countermeasures exist? Some did, yes. Range was limited, so staying out of range and attacking via arrows and catapults helped against manufactured fire. (This is, perhaps, why ramming ships fell out of favor in Byzantine naval tactics. Ramming was a major feature of ancient naval warfare. It saved the Greeks from Persian invasion at Salamis in 480 BCE, notably.) Likewise, the delivery system worked far better when Byzantine ships had the wind in their favor. On calm days, range was even shorter.

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Importance of Manufactured Fire

I think the importance is what it demonstrates about the application of science to warfare. In the modern world, we expect this. But it feels like this is something that differentiates us from the ancient or medieval world. Not so. It seems that killing other people in war has always been a motivation behind technological advance. That’s not a completely negative thing if the technology also has uses outside of war.

Sadly, this does not seem true of sea fire. It appears it had no significant peacetime uses—killing soldiers and sailors was all it did.

Read on to my next post for more examples of interesting technology and knowledge from the Byzantine world!

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