1876.] E. Maclagan— On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. 31 



it was made in the fourth century ;• a missile which seems to have been 

 familiar for a long time under that name,f and which was no doubt origi- 

 nally made hammer-headed in some sense, and afterwards had the fire case 

 put into this more effective shape. It is of this improved missile that Am- 

 mianus says it had to be projected with only moderate force, as otherwise 

 the fire was apt to go out in the course of its flight. The fire-bearing 

 javelin (called falarica), which was thrown by hand or with greater force 

 by a tormentum or twisted cord apparatus, either had the ignited matter 

 wrapped round the point J or, like the malleolus, carried the fire in a metal 

 case or cage.§ And from the war engines were also thrown vessels of com- 

 bustibles by themselves. j| 



Each of these kinds of burning missiles acquired increased efficiency by 

 the employment of materials giving a more effective and persistent flame ; and 

 petroleum or naphtha, when obtainable, or other bituminous products, came 

 to be used in place of the vegetable oils.f In countries in which these mineral 

 oils are found, in some form or other, the effective character of the fire used in 

 this way in war may be generally ascribed to the use of materials of this class. 

 Naphtha appears to have been the first and chief of the materials used for 

 producing the Greek Fire, ## which was the most distinctive and destructive 

 of the war-missiles of the middle ages in the' East. Other inflammable sub- 

 stances, combined with naphtha or petroleum in the Greek Fire composi- 

 tions, came next to be used in similar manner without the oil. And these 

 dry compounds, of various proportions, used at first only in this way, 

 reached their highest power and application when, in the form of gunpow- 

 der, the explosive material was employed not merely for the purpose of 



* Aran, MarcelL, XXIII, 4, 14. 



f — plena omnia malleolorum ad urbis incendia comparatorum (Cic, Pro Mil., 

 XXIV). 



X As used by the defenders of Saguntum against Hannibal : — ad extremum unde 

 ferrum exstabat. Id sicut in pilo quadratum stuppa circumligabant liniebantque pice. 

 (Liv. XXI, 8.) And the flame, it is stated, instead of being extinguished, gained increased 

 force in its passage through the air. 



§ Vegetius, De Re Militari, IV. XVIII. 



|| S77610 Trvpcpopa. Polyb., XXI, 5, 1. Arrian, Exp. Alex. I, 21, 22, 23 ; II, 19. Diod. 

 Sic., XX. 4. Tac, Hist., II. 21. Virg., JEn., X. 13*0. 1. Maccab., VI, 51. Ockletj, 

 Hist, of the Saracens, 427) . 



IT Bitumen, sulphur, picem liquidam, oleum quod incendiarium vocant ad exuren- 

 das hostium machinas, convenit praeparare. Vegetius, Be Re Militari, IV, 8, and V, 14. 

 &yyeia 8e Ogiov nal a<r(pd\Tov £fiirAri(rdfj.€Voi. nal (papy-dKov '6wep MtjSoi jjikv vdcpOav KaXovaiv, 

 EAA?}i/e$ Se Mydeias '4\aiov. (Procopius, de Bell. Goth., quoted in Lalanne's Becherchcs sur 

 le Feu Gregeois, p. 48). 



** "It would seem that the principal ingredient of the Greek Fire was naphtha or 

 liquid bitumen." Gibbon, Chap. II. 



