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The first fire that was used in war occasioned as great, if not 

 a more considerable, alarm, than that caused by the explosion of 

 gunpowder. It was called the Greek fire, and is said to have 

 been discovered in very ancient times. Jt was the invention of 

 Callimcus, an architect of Heliopolis or Balbeck, who left the 

 service of a Caliph, and brought the important arcanum to 

 Constantinople in the reign of Constantine Pagonatus. That 

 emperor forbade the art of making it to be communicated to any 

 except his own subjects, and the secret was long preserved : 

 it was, however, at length known among the nations confeder- 

 ated with the Byzantines. It is supposed to have been com- 

 pounded of the gum of the pine and other resinous trees, reduced 

 to powder with brimstone, to which were added naptha and other 

 bitumens, and, according to some, the water of a fountain in the 

 east, which had the property to amalgamate with these -combus- 

 tibles, and to render them more inflammable ; but this last article 

 seems hardly possible to have been included, as in that case it 

 could have been only made where that water was to be had, 

 whereas it was in use both all over Asia and in Europe. Anna 

 Comena says it was composed of bitumen, sulphur, and naptha. 



The Greek fire was employed A. D. 883, by Nicetas, the 

 high-admiral of the eastern empire, who was sent by the Sara- 

 cens of Crete with a navy to assault Constantinople : he attacked 

 and utterly defeated them, burning twenty of their ships by " the 

 Greek fire." 



Procopius, in his History of the Goths, calls it " Medea's 

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