Greek fire
Fuego griego
- Date
- c. 672 CE · confidence high
- Place
- Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey
- Credited to
- Callinicus of Heliopolis, a Syrian refugee in Constantinople
- People
- 👤 Calínico de Heliópolis600–700
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Incendiary mixture based on crude oil, resin and quicklime, projected under pressure through bronze siphons from ships, which burned on water. A secret weapon of the Byzantine state.
Later than the 500 CE cut-off but included by explicit request; the exact recipe was lost and its composition remains debated.
What it led to
- The saving of Constantinople in the Arab sieges of 674-678 and 717-718
- State secrecy as technological policy and industrial espionage
- Flamethrowers and incendiary projectiles in Islamic and Chinese armies
- Byzantine naval dominance for centuries
- survival of the Byzantine Empire in 678 and 718
- naval warfare with chemical weapons and bronze siphons
- a legacy in Islamic incendiary weapons (naft) and in early fire lances
Built on
- Catapult and torsion ballista399 BCE
- Force pump and fire engine (Ctesibius)c. 270 BCE
- Distillation of petroleum
- Ctesibius's piston pump
- Naphtha
- Hellenistic siphon pumps
Made possible
- Gunpowderc. 850
- Double-piston flamethrower919
- Portable compressed-gas flamethrower (Flammenwerfer)1901 (prototipo) / 1915 (uso en combate)
- Incendiary grenade
- Naval siphon
- Gunpowder