Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/30

 10 THE DECLINE AND FALL reserved for the distressful period, when the degenerate Romans of the East were incapable of contending with the warlike enthusiasm and youthful vigour of the Saracens. The historian who presumes to analyse this extraordinary composition should suspect his own ignorance and that of his Byzantine guides, so prone to the marvellous, so careless, and in this instance so jealous, of the truth. From their obscure and perhaps fallacious hints, it should seem that the principal ingredient of the Greek fire was the naptha,'^^ or liquid bitumen, a light, tenacious, and inflammable oil,-i which springs from the earth and catches fire as soon as it comes in contact with the air. The naptha was mingled, I know not by what methods or in what proportions, with sulphur and with the pitch that is extracted from ever- green firs. -2 From this mixture, which produced a thick smoke and a loud explosion, proceeded a fierce and obstinate flame, which not only rose in perpendicular ascent, but likewise burnt with equal vehemence in descent or lateral progress ; instead of being extinguished, it was nourished and quickened, by the element of water ; and sand, urine, or vinegar were the only remedies that could damp the fury of this powerful agent, which was justly denominated by the Greeks the liquid or the maritime 2" The naptha, the oleum incendiarium of the history of Jerusalem (Gest. Dei per Francos, p. 1167), the Oriental fountain of James de Vitry (1. iii. c. 84), is introduced on slight evidence and strong probability. Cinnamus (1. vi. p. 165 [c. 10]) calls the Greek fire :r p M -r; 6 1 k o >■ ; and the naptha is known to abound between the Tigris and the Caspian Sea. According to Pliny (Hist. Natur. ii. 109) it was subservient to the revenge of Medea, and in either etymology the iKaiov Mrjatns or MTjSeias (Procop. de Bell. Gothic. 1. iv. c. 11) may fairly signify this liquid bitumen. -^ On the different sorts of oils and bitumens, see Dr. Watson's (the present bishop of Llandaffs) Chemical Essays, vol. iii. essay i., a classic book, the best adapted to infuse the taste and knowledge of chemistrj'. The less perfect ideas of the ancients may be found in Strabo (Geograph. 1. xvi. p. 1078 [1315]), and Pliny (Hist. Natur. ii. 108, 109) : Huic [Napthae) magna cognatio est ignium, transiliuntque protinus in earn undecunque visam. Of our travellers I am best pleased with Otter (tom. i. p. 153, 158). 22 Anna Comnena has partly drawn aside the curtain. 'tto t^s ttcvxt)? Ka. aAAoit' Tivfjjv roiOVTUiV fieVSptut' aei^aAtui' crvrayerat SaKpyov euKavcrroi'. Touxo ^era. 6fL0V Tpt^oju.ei'Oi' efi^aAAerat ei? avXia-Kov^ KaXd^tAif Kal €^0ua"aTat Trapa tov naC^ovro^ AdjSpuj /cal o-uFfX'! irf(viJ.aTi. (.A.lexiad. 1. xiii. p. 383 [c. 3]). Elsewhere (1. xi. p. 336 [c. 4]) she mentions the property of burning, Kara to irpavi^ Kal e' eKdrspa. Leo, in the nineteenth chapter [§ 51, p. 1008, ed. Migne] of his Tactics (Opera Meursii, tom. vi. p. 843, edit. Lami, Florent. 1745), speaks of the new inventionofTrOpneTa ^porTrjs Ka'i KOTTfoO. These are genuine and hnperial testimonies. [It is certain that one kind of "Greek" or " marine" fire was gunpowder. The receipt is preserved in a treatise of the ninth century, entitled Liber ignium ad comburendos hostes, by Marcus Graecus, preserved only in a Latin translation (edited by F. Hofer in His- toire de la chimie, vol. 1, 1842). But other intlammable compounds, containing pitch, naphtha, &c. . must be distinguished. See further Appendix 5.]