Greek Fire
by What was this secret weapon from late antiquity?
In the seventh century the Byzantine empire faced a new threat from the Arab empire. In the seventh century Arab influence had spread through Palestine, Syria and Egypt. Now it threatened Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine empire. Whereas the vast Theodosian Walls protected the city from land assault there seemed to be no protection from the sea. Yet, the Byzantine Greeks had a defence. Twice the Arabs beseiged the city and twice they failed to take it.
The Byzantine secret weapon was Greek fire. It was a weapon so terrible that became a generic term for any form of incendiary weapon from burning arrows to fireballs thrown by ballista. The secret was closely guarded different artisans knew parts of the process, no one knew the whole.
Constantinople kept a firm hold on their secret. When the Byzanitine empire faced civil wars in 727 and 821-823 the Imperial fleet from Constantinople won the day through the use of Greek fire. It was used to push back the Muslim advance in the late 9th early 10th century and to defeat the Rus’raids in 941, 1043. In the Rus war of 968 to 971 Byzantine fire ships blockaded the Danube. Later, it was reputed to have been used against the Pisans in 1099 and using hastily prepared fire ships against the fourth Crusade in 1203 whereupon it mysteriously fell from use.
Just as we have nuclear weapons today, the fear of Greek fire acted as a deterrent in its day. Greek fire even gained a religious significance. It was revealed to the Emperor Constantine by an angel. Anyone who revealed its secrets would be chastised by a flame from heaven at the gates of the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom.
The mystique was so great that the recipe was lost long ago. Scholars have to make intelligent guesses to rediscover the workings of Greek fire. We know that the use of incendiary weapons long predates the Byzantine achievement. The Assyrians used incendiary arrows as long ago as the 9th century BC. Thucydudes talks of a flamethrower in the siege of Delium in 424BC. The Byzantine achievement was to improve the chemistry, develop an effective delivery system and devise effective tactics.
Historians think that Greek fire was invented around 672 AD at the time of the first Muslim siege of Constantinople. Chemists may well have fled from the Muslim conquests in Phoenice and Alexandria and pooled their knowledge when the Byzantine empire was in mortal danger. In our time we can compare this with the European scientists who fled from Nazi Germany and ended up working for the American war machine.
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