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Usage of the term "Greek fire" has been general in English and most other languages since the Crusades. Original Byzantine sources called the substance a variety of names, such as "sea fire" (Medieval Greek: πῦρ θαλάσσιον pŷr thalássion), "Roman fire" (πῦρ ῥωμαϊκόν pŷr rhōmaïkón), "war fire" (πολεμικὸν πῦρ polemikòn pŷr), "liquid fire ...
He is credited with the invention of Greek fire, the premodern precedent of the flamethrower. According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, he arrived in Byzantium in the time of Constantine IV and shared his knowledge of liquid fire with the Byzantines. [9] [10] Callinicus’ exact formula was a carefully guarded secret, and remains unknown today ...
[1] Fire was one of many archai proposed by the pre-Socratics, most of whom sought to reduce the cosmos, or its creation, to a single substance. Heraclitus (c. 535 BCE – c. 475 BCE) considered fire to be the most fundamental of all elements. He believed fire gave rise to the other three elements: "All things are an interchange for fire, and ...
The Liber Ignium ad Comburendos Hostes (translated as On the Use of Fire to Conflagrate the Enemy, or Book of Fires for the Burning of Enemies, and abbreviated as Book of Fires) is a medieval collection of recipes for incendiary weapons, including Greek fire and gunpowder, written in Latin and allegedly written by a certain Marcus Graecus ("Mark the Greek")—a person whose existence is ...
The formula for Greek fire was kept a secret, but whatever it was made from would almost certainly have been common knowledge among the chemists, alchemists and apothecaries of the day. Sulfur, niter and charcoal were substances known for centuries, but it took a while before it was discovered that if you mix them in the right amounts, the ...
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A man was convicted of involuntary arson on Monday for his role in Greece's deadliest wildfire in memory, and five former fire officials found guilty of misdemeanours linked to their response to ...
A weapon as primitive as fire did not cease to play an important role in siege warfare throughout ancient times, because wood remained an essential material in civil architecture and even became an essential part of the composition of the most exposed points of the fortifications (gates, patrol paths and various palisades), and also because of ...