15 Facts About Greek fire

However, these mixtures used formulas different from that of Byzantine Greek fire, which was a closely guarded state secret.

Composition of Greek fire remains a matter of speculation and debate, with various proposals including combinations of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, calcium phosphide, sulfur, or niter.

Greek fire proper was developed in c and is ascribed by the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor to Kallinikos, an architect from Heliopolis in the former province of Phoenice, by then overrun by the Muslim conquests:.

Greek fire had devised a sea fire which ignited the Arab ships and burned them with all hands.

Accuracy and exact chronology of this account is open to question: elsewhere, Theophanes reports the use of Greek fire-carrying ships equipped with nozzles by the Byzantines a couple of years before the supposed arrival of Kallinikos at Constantinople.

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Kallinikos' development of Greek fire came at a critical moment in the Byzantine Empire's history: weakened by its long wars with Sassanid Persia, the Byzantines had been unable to effectively resist the onslaught of the Muslim conquests.

Greek fire was used to great effect against the Muslim fleets, helping to repel the Muslims at the first and second Arab sieges of the city.

Greek fire continued to be mentioned during the 12th century, and Anna Komnene gives a vivid description of its use in a naval battle against the Pisans in 1099.

Records of a 13th-century event in which "Greek fire" was used by the Saracens against the Crusaders can be read through the Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville during the Seventh Crusade.

Information available on Greek fire is exclusively indirect, based on references in the Byzantine military manuals and a number of secondary historical sources such as Anna Komnene and Western European chroniclers, which are often inaccurate.

Second view, based on the fact that Greek fire was inextinguishable by water suggested that its destructive power was the result of the explosive reaction between water and quicklime.

Account, albeit embellished, corresponds with many of the characteristics of Greek fire known from other sources, such as a loud roar that accompanied its discharge.

In Rick Riordan's Greek storyline, Greek Fire is described as being a volatile green liquid.

Sansom's historical mystery novel Dark Fire, Thomas Cromwell sends the lawyer Matthew Shardlake to recover the secret of Greek fire, following its discovery in the library of a dissolved London monastery.

In Mika Waltari's novel The Dark Angel, some old men who are the last ones who know the secret of Greek fire are mentioned as present in the last Christian services held in Hagia Sophia before the Fall of Constantinople.