12 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,asitis certain that they were 

 acquainted with the usejof 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 sAaiov M^staf , a sort of 

 proof, by the way, that naphtha entered into its composition. 

 Cinnamus also calls the Greek fire wvg MySuxov. 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 wg ^tra, /5oj/T*3? xai xaTrvs. 

 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 balistse, 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 



