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Lesser Known Byzantine Empire Facts

Khalid Elhassan September 11, 2020 35 min

Byzantine Empire - Constantinople — Procession of Emperor Manuel I Komenos in Constantinople. Imgur

33. The Medieval Napalm That Saved the Byzantine Empire

Medieval illustration of Greek Fire. Wikimedia

In the 670s, the Byzantines developed Greek Fire, an incendiary weapon to set enemy ships ablaze. Stored in a container and pumped out at high pressure through a nozzle, the weapon was a medieval flamethrower that directed a stream of fire at opposing ships’ wooden hulls. Like napalm, the incendiary produced an intense fire that burned on almost any surface, including water. That made it highly effective in naval warfare.

Greek Fire saving Constantinople from an Arab siege. Pintrest

Some limitations kept Greek Fire from revolutionizing warfare like gunpowder would centuries later. It had a short effective range, of about only thirty feet, so ships had to be very close. Conditions also had to be ideal: strong winds would make targeting impossible, and so would rough seas. However, when ideal conditions of no wind and calm seas were met, Greek Fire was devastating. That happened during the 717-718 Arab Siege of Constantinople when a naval assault was annihilated by Greek Fire in a close-range sea battle that saved the city.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.