What was greek fire

Sign in. Back to Main menu Virtual events Masterclasses. Home Period General ancient history What was Greek fire? Read more… What was the Varangian Guard? The process for making the liquid must have been a very dangerous one indeed. Especially if it was as volatile as contemporary accounts highlight. The distillation of petroleum, if it was used, would also have required a highly advanced technology for the time.

Because the formula was only handed down from Emperor to Emperor little else is known about Greek Fire. This precaution was so successful that it was kept a secret for over 7 00 years and has since been lost to history. Despite this, some partial recipes have been found by historians from Byzantine sources.

From the pine and certain such evergreen trees, [an] inflammable resin is collected. This is rubbed with sulfur and put into tubes, and is thrown forth by men using it with violent and continuous breath.

Then in this manner, it meets the fire on the tip and catches the light and falls like a fiery whirlwind on the faces of the enemies. A raiding Arab fleet with ambitions of sacking Constantinople modern-day Istanbul was destroyed by Greek ships armed with their new superweapon.

The ships were augmented with tubes mounted on their prows. Under the command of Constantine the IV, the entire Arab fleet was decimated using their new invention. The Arab land army, now lacking the support of their fleet, were forced to break the siege and retreat. The weapon appears to have been very deadly indeed, notably during sea battles. For this reason, it has been cited by some historians that Greek Fire could well be the main reason for the long survival of the Byzantine Empire.

For this reason, Greek Fire was a closely guarded state secret with only a few people privy to its exact composition. So closely kept was this secret that its precise composition is still unknown to this day but its reputation is as strong as it was over a millennium ago.

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Greek fire was a flaming mixture fired from the ships of the Byzantine empire from the 7th century. The fire would cling to flesh and was impossible to extinguish with water.

This deadly concoction was created by a family of chemists and engineers from Constantinople, and the secret recipe died with them.