Tag: Greek Fire

Greek Fire Legendary Incendiary Part Two

There has been some debate on what Greek Fire actually was. Most historians agree that it made use of petroleum and others throw around combinations of pine resin, quicklime, calcium phosphide, sulfur, or niter. So then let us briefly examine some of these components to the best of my ability, bearing in mind that chemistry has never one of my strong subjects!

Pine Resin This seems like a likely enough candidate. It is certainly a substance prone to inflame, particularly the sticky resin used to make turpentine and obtained from the low growing terebinth tree of the Mediterranean. Pine resin likely also thickened the mixture, helping it to cling to armor, skin and the sides of wooden sea going vessels.

Naphtha would have been the petroleum component in the mixture. Also flammable, it forms part of the word for Napalm, probably one of the world’s best known incendiaries. The word is derived from Persian and comes to us in the Latin and Greek. However then it would have simply been a term for crude oil and was probably what was referred to when used in Greek fire.

Quicklime From what I have studied, the use of quick lime, or calcium oxide, in actual application for the liquid is highly probable, though there are those who would disagree with me. When calcium oxide makes contact with water, it increases its temperature above 150°C. In addition, the fumes from burning this substance are irritants to the skin and mucous membranes. Not a nice thing to be hit with when the wind isn’t favoring you. It certainly speaks on Greek’s Fire’s notorious reputation for the flames increasing in intensity when water was poured on it.

Calcium Phosphide This, like quicklime is known to react with water. Historically, it was made by boiling bones with charcoal and lime in a closed container, possibly made of clay. When put in contact with water calcium phosphide releases phosphine, which is actually explosive. Calcium phosphide is used in modern times in incendiary weapons and in fireworks and torpedoes. It has also been used as a rodenticide, reacting with the acids in the animals’ digestive systems.

Niter is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, also known as saltpeter and commonly an ingredient of gunpowder. During the American Revolution, back country caves in Kentucky were a common source for saltpeter needed for gunpowder. Niter as well as sulfur have both been disputed as actually having any actual bearing in the formula. For one thing, saltpeter was not supposed to have been known in the West before 1125.

Sulfur would have been well known all the way back to ancient times and was known then as brimstone. There is no doubt it was used by itself or with bitumen hurled in clay pots as an incendiary weapon. As a component for Greek fire, however, many experts seem to be unconvinced.
So do we know what Greek Fire was really composed of? Have all attempts to reconstruct this substance failed? Perhaps not. Watch this documentary showing how Greek Fire may have been sprayed using a sort of ancient flame thrower.

For more information, see also:

A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder
By J. R. Partington

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare …
By Adrienne Mayor

Greek Fire – Legendary Incendiary Part One

In The Serpentine Key, the secret to Greek Fire is stolen through the subterfuge of a member of the imperial family itself and used as a bargaining chip in the intrigues surrounding the rebellion against Basil II in the 980s.
Greek Fire was an incendiary weapon, most famously used by the Byzantine Empire from at least the seventh century C.E., eventually being lost to obscurity, some say by the end of the thirteenth century. Greek Fire is most famous for being able to burn on water and reputedly not being able to be extinguished with water. Some even said that water fueled its flames. The only things that could extinguish it were supposedly vinegar and stale urine, both of which were used to infuse cow hides which were then placed over fortress walls and ships to protect them from igniting. This was useful knowledge for those against whom Greek fire was used, including the Rus, Bulgarians, Turks and others. In 814, the Bulgarians captured several barrels of the stuff and 36 siphons, but because of the complex nature of operating the devices, they went unused. In 941, the liquid was used against the Rus with deadly efficacy. Liudprand of Cremona remembered this event when he wrote: “The Rus, seeing the flames, jumped overboard, preferring water to fire. Some sank, weighed down by the weight of their breastplates and helmets; others caught fire.” Those who escaped were captured and executed. The Rus never again attempted to besiege Constantinople, preferring in later years to guard the city in the capacity of the Varangian Guard.

It is telling that this weapon was not called Greek Fire in its own time. Indeed, the Byzantines who thought of themselves as nothing by Roman, would have been insulted by the appellation of Greek, even though it was the language most in the Empire spoke. Instead it was called Roman fire, Kallinikos fire, sea fire, liquid fire and even wild fire, and it is this latter name that George R.R. Martin in his Song of Ice and Fire series chose for the green fire used by the characters in his fantasy.
Greek fire is credited to a Syrian known as Kallinikos or Callinicus. Supposedly, his descendants, a family by the name of Lampros, were responsible for guarding the secret. This story in itself is controversial. The name Lampros means “Brilliant” Was this a cover for the people who were in charge of keeping it secret? It has been said the the secret was never written down, but was given into the care of three alchemists who each knew a portion of the formula, but not all of it, so that it could not be stolen. Were these alchemists of the Lampros family? Or were they members of a family at all, but actually more of a secret organization charged with the security of the Byzantine Empire?

Incendiary weapons were hardly new to the scene when Kallinikos came along. They are depicted as being used by the Assyrians and are mentioned numerous times in historical records. So what made Greek Fire so special? There were a lot of people who wanted to get their hands on it and the Byzantines would do a lot to keep it out of the hands of their enemies. It was said that on his deathbed, Romanos II, charged his son (Basil II’s father) to never deliver the secret to the enemies of the empire, declaring the weapon to be a gift from the angels and “not to prepare this fire but for Christians, and only in the imperial city”. In addition to the alchemists who compounded the secret formula, there was also the task of constructing the siphons through which the liquid was propelled at other ships. Furthermore, the men who operated the siphons needed to be trained to effectively operate them. The siphons would likely have been a device in which the liquid was heated in a sort of covered cauldron, whereupon it would have been forced through a siphon that was pumped, giving it the necessary pressure to effectively spray the heated liquid over a good distance with deadly effect. Those operating this system would likely have needed some sort of protective covering, perhaps leather garments soaked in vinegar or stale urine.