Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 3 



for he knew much of what was required for its illustration. 

 Watson, better fitted still for the inquiry, has shunned it en- 

 tirely, after leading us to hope that he was about to enter on it. 



It would be presumptuous to expect to render that clear 

 which so many great names have thus attempted in vain, or 

 abandoned as hopeless. Yet by comparing the narratives and 

 descriptions of the ancient writers with each other, and with 

 some collateral information, that can be brought to bear on the 

 same point, it will not be very difficult to make some steps at 

 least on firm ground. It will turn out, unless I am much mis- 

 taken, that different inventions have been described by the sam& 

 name, and that the main source of the confusion can be traced 

 to this cause. It may perhaps even appear, that though we 

 cannot in this way reconcile all the accounts, yet that we shall 

 discover what some kinds of the Greek fire really were, if we 

 should still remain at a loss about others. Something too will 

 be gained by divesting these accounts of the marvellous, which 

 has in no small degree aided their confusion in obscuring this 

 provoking subject. 



In examining this question, it will, I think, appear that some 

 of the inventions which we consider modern, are of a very dis- 

 tant date ; and that if we have so long remained ignorant of 

 that, it is because there is scarcely a scientific writer of those 

 ages to which alone we must look for this kind of information. 

 It will also be seen, that there is an intimate connexion between 

 the history of the Greek fire and that of gunpowder. But it is 

 here intended to avoid touching on that subject as much as is 

 possible, and to reserve it for a future communication. 



The common opinion is, that the Greek fire was invented 

 during the reign of Constantine Pogonatus, in the year 668, by 

 Callinicus, an architect of Heliopolis. Gibbon has collected 

 another tale, which says that it was revealed to Constantine the 

 Great by an angel, with a sacred injunction that this gift of 

 heaven and peculiar blessing of the Romans, should never be 

 communicated to any foreign nation. The impious attempt, it 

 was said, would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance 

 of the God of the Christians. 



