392 Dr. Mac Culloch on the 
thorities ; and, unfortunately , these personages are all very 
prone to the marvellous. 
The Greeks called it the liquid, or maritime fire, probably from 
its application in naval engagements,as itis certain that they were 
acquainted with the use‘of fireships. Procopius, in his history 
of the Goths, uses the same term as the Chinese, calling it an 
oil, Media’s oil, as if it had been some infernal composition of 
that noted sorceress. But the historian seems to have borrowed 
this term from Pliny, who calls naphtha erwsov Mndesé, a sort of 
proof, by the way, that naphtha entered into its composition. 
_Cinnamus also calls the Greek fire vg Mzdvxov. All these 
names bespeak some resinous or oily inflammable compound, 
such as might be used in fire-ships, or for other purposes, with- 
out the intervention or help of nitre. But Leo uses a different 
mode of expression, when he calls it avg wera Reovrns nas xaorve. 
We must conclude that he is speaking of some explosive sub- 
stance into which nitre entered as an ingredient, and that there 
were consequently more Greek fires than one. Of the terms 
used by others, I need only notice that of the author of the 
Gesta Dei per Francos, who calls naphtha oleum incendarium, 
making it further probable that this ingredient entered into 
some of these compounds. 
With respect to its composition, the information is very 
scanty; but the descriptions seem all to refer to resinous and 
oily substances, confirming the opinion to be derived from the 
greater number of the names above recited. By some it is said 
to have been unctuous and viscid, while others again describe it 
as a solid substance. Quintus Curtius considers it as made of 
turpentine. Anna Comnena says that it was composed of sul- 
phur, bitumen and naphtha. In another place she says that it 
was a mixture of pitch and other similar resins, and that it was 
thrown from balistee, and attached to arrows. 
Other authors also describe the modes in which it was used. 
In fire-ships it was blown through tubes over the sides. This is 
not very intelligible, unless it refers to ordnance of some kind, 
which we can scarcely admit. Fire-ships of this kind were 
