Roman ships used flamethrowers as far back as the seventh century.

World History

M odern flamethrowers emerged at the turn of the 20th century, but the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, was far ahead of the curve. The empire's most closely guarded secret — its exact formula is a mystery even today — was its recipe for Greek fire, a napalm-like incendiary substance. The Byzantines first deployed it to defend Constantinople from an Arab attack, loading it into bronze siphons and firing it under pressure at enemy ships, like an early version of a flamethrower. (They would also fill pots with Greek fire and hurl them like grenades.) Because it caught fire spontaneously and couldn't be extinguished by water, it was a powerful and destructive naval weapon, and it helped the Byzantines stay in power for centuries.

Callinicus of Heliopolis, a Greek-speaking refugee who fled to Constantinople from Syria after the city was conquered and became part of the Rashidun Caliphate, is widely credited for inventing Greek fire. Historians are pretty confident that it was petroleum- or naphtha-based, possibly sourced from Crimea. Other possible ingredients include quicklime, sulfur, and saltpeter. Its volatility meant that it was extremely dangerous to manufacture — and distilling the petroleum product would have been pretty advanced tech for the time. The weapon was a mainstay of the Byzantine arsenal for centuries, and despite one of their flamethrowers being captured once, nobody else managed to crack the code.

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By the Numbers

Year Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire

1453

Year grindcore band Napalm Death's debut album, Scum, was released

1987

Did you know?

Sword fighters in Renaissance Italy had lantern shields.

Sword fighters in Renaissance-era Italy would often duel at dawn, carrying lanterns to both light their way and also use as weapons in their own right. Fencing manuals at the time instructed students on how to use lanterns to blind opponents and deflect blows. Armorers started adding a hook for hanging these lanterns on shields, sometimes even embedding lanterns into them. Eventually, things got a little out of hand; one particularly famous lantern shield also includes a gauntlet and a dagger. Ultimately, lantern shields turned out to not be very practical, since it was pretty easy to accidentally snuff out the lantern or scald yourself with lamp oil.