Greek Fire, the Most Powerful Weapon of Byzantine Army Essay -- Byzant

War is the father of on the whole things.1 Volkman begins his book, Science Goes to War, with this quote from Heraclitus, the Hellenic philosopher. Volkman uses the quote to suggest that many, if not all, scientific advancements owe their birth to the desire for or the fear of war. Fire is undoubtedly a part of this advancement as Bert Hall points out, Fire is iness of the primordial forces of nature, and incendiary artillery units have had a place in armies toolkits for almost as long as civilized states have made war.2 Of all the tools at the disposal of the Byzantine Empires military, the so called Greek fire was the most important.3Greek fire was a weapon system that allowed Byzantine ships, as early as the seventh century, to spew fire at its enemies. On the ships prow was the head of a lion or some other monstrosity, cast in hardiness or iron. In its mouth was a bronze siphon that could swivel back and forth.4 The flaming liquid that spewed from this siphon came with th e roaring sound and a foul cloud of smoke. What makes it worse is that it even burns while in water.5 The fear it instilled in enemies sometimes egged men in full plate armor to border in the water, knowing they will be dragged down to the bottom simply because drowning was preferable to being burned alive.6Such an awe-inspiring beast of a weapon was already predisposed to legend and rumor. However, even as cinematic as Greek fire was, its cloud of ambiguity is, frankly, ridiculous. Put as accurately and elegantly as possible, Greek fire was a misnomer wrapped in a misconception, confused in translation, veiled in secrecy, and embellished with apocrypha.7 At one point, one of the Byzantine emperors wrote in a letter to his son that Greek fire was revealed and ta... ...timore The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1960. p. 19.Parkington, James Riddick Parkington. Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. New York Arno Press, 1975.Roland, Alex. Review of A storey of Greek Fire an d Gunpowder, by James Riddick Parkington, Technology and Culture, Vol. 41. No. 1 (Jan., 2000).Roland, Alex. Secrecy, Technology, and War Greek Fire and the Defense of Byzantium, 678-1204. Technology and Culture Vol. 33, No. 4 (1992) 655-679.Russel, Bertrand. History of Western Philosophy. London George Allen and Unwin LTD, 1946. p. 60.Stannard, Jerry. Review of A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, by James Riddick Parkington, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 29. No. 4 (Oct., 1962).Volkman, Ernest. Science Goes to War The seek for the Ultimate Weapon, from Greek Fire to Star Wars. New YorkJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.