Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 13 



used by the Arabs, at the second siege of Constantinople, in 

 716 and 718. In other cases it was poured from the ramparts 

 in large boilers ; a description which agrees very well with a 

 merely inflammable resinous composition. Tow was dipped in 

 it, and wrapped round arrows, a mode of use that will apply to 

 the same class of compositions. But it was also launched in 

 red hot balls of stone or iron. There we are at a loss again. 

 This could be no mode of using a resinous composition, and it 

 is more likely that these balls were some kind of carcasses, or 

 hollow bodies, projected by means of balistse, or other machi- 

 nery. In this case the composition must have contained nitre, 

 as without that no resinous compound could have burnt in such 

 confinement, without access of air. 



This leads to the conclusion formerly made, that there was 

 more than one kind of Greek fire, or that different kinds of 

 military fire-works were described under a common name. It 

 proves, perhaps, still more ; namely, that the reporters were igno- 

 rant of its nature, and that they named by guess those substances 

 with the inflammable properties of which they happened to be 

 acquainted. 



It is now time to try to reconcile the more particular reports 

 'f its effects, and of the manner in which it was used, to any 

 f the compositions above-named, or to any single invention, 

 'he description in the Speculum Regale, from a manuscript of 

 ic thirteenth century, is amongst the least intelligible. After 

 numerating several military engines, it says, " Omnium autem 

 [uae enumeravimus armorum et machinarum, prsestantissimus 

 st incurvus clypeorum gigas, flammas venenatas eructans." 

 Of this I must fairly confess that I can make nothing. 



The next account that I may select is from a French Chronicle 

 of 1190, by which it would appear that it was a liquid, enclosed 

 in vessels of some kind, " phioles." Here is the passage itself : 

 " Ainsi qu'il alloit par mer il rencontre 1111 nef de Saracens que 

 le Soudan Saladin envoioit en Acre pour le secours faire a ceux, 

 qui etoient en la cite, et cette nef avoit grande plant de phioles 

 de voire pleines de feu Gregois." 



B 



