1822.} Rev. Mr. Conybeare on the Greek Fire. 437 
same purposes. ‘Cum quid adtigit solidi adhzret preterea 
tactus sequitur fugientes. Sic defendére (Comagenes incole) 
muros oppugnante Lucullo, flagrabatque miles armis suis aquis 
etiam accenditur terra tantum restingui docuere experimenta.”* 
In the age then of Lucullus, we have the use of this compound, 
(or at least of its most energetic constituent) restricted to an east- 
ern people,—a strong corroboration of the conclusion at which 
Dr. M. has arrived from other premises. But there is a yet 
earlier though less respectable testimony to the existence of a 
like oleum incendiarium to be found in the remains of the mar- 
yel-monger Ctesias. He affirms that the mountain chimera 
sends forth constant flames, which are increased by water, but 
extinguished by earth.; lian has preserved a still more 
curious version of the properties and use of naphtha from the 
same Ctesias. He relates that a gigantic worm is found in the 
Indus, from whose body is obtained an oil capable of burning 
any thing with which it comes in contact, even without the appli- 
cation of fire. With this, it is said, he adds, that the Persian 
monarch besieges and subdues towns, needing and using no 
other engine. He has merely to throw an earthen vessel filled 
with the destructive fluid within the walls, or against the gates, 
and resistance becomes useless. It can be extinguished only by 
heaping on it earth and rubbish.{ Photius has an extract from 
the same quarter to the same purpose.§ Strabo also mentions 
both the solid and liquid varieties of naphtha. He states that 
it may be extinguished by a very large quantity of water; but 
that it may be quenched by dust, alum, vinegar, or birdlime|| (sé). 
He alleges the authority of Eratosthenes. It would probably be 
no difficult task to multiply yet further our references to early 
authorities,{] but enough has been, I think, adduced to show 
that the Greek fire was known to the Romans before the time 
of Callinicus, or even of Constantine. 
1 pass to the paragraph quoted from the Speculum Regale. 
This is, as Dr. M. justly remarks, very obscure. To me it bears 
the appearance of an extract from some Scaldic poem ; at least, 
it is conceived in the metaphorical style of their versification. 
I should decidedly prefer reading with the MSS. elldligum 
for eiturligum loga (q. d. ignes flammeos), Skialldar Jautun 
would poetically be used to express the gigantic destroyer of 
shields, or even of fortifications (hostis giganteus testudinum) : 
the incurvus (biugur) may refer either to a large cross bow or to 
the spring of the balista. This, it may be said, is a forced inter- 
_ * Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. 2, c. 104. 
VEINS Ctesiam in app. Herodot. Wesseling. p. 860. V. et. Plin. Hist, Nat, 1. 2, 
ec. 106. 
{ Ctes. ut supra, p. 864. § Ctes. p. 832. 
|| Strabo. Ed, Oxon. p. 1055. 
~ [have not had the opportunity of consulting Vegetius, the Poliorceticon of Lipsius, 
the works of Arrian, or of Quintus Curtius, or the Glossary of Ducange. My editions 
of Pliny and Ammianus Marcellinus are unfortunately without notes. 
