Greek fire, poison arrows and scorpion bombs: biological and chemical warfare in the Ancient World - Hardcover

MAYOR, Adrienne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0715632574 ISBN 13: 9780715632574

Publisher: Overlook Duckworth, 2003

Synopsis

This study traces biological and chemical warfare to its ancient roots and Mayor's findings are as riveting in their gruesomeness as they are surprising in their historical precedence. Drawing on a wide array of sources, both ancient and modern, Mayor recounts ancient recipes for concocting arrow poisons; she describes booby traps rigged with plague; toxic honey, poisoned wells, and spiked wine; petroleum-based combustibles, choking gases, and incendiary bombs; and the deployment of dangerous animals and venomous insects. The author also explores the ambiguous moral implications inherent in this kind of warfare: if intelligence and cunning are to be valued, as well as physical courage on the battlefield, then are these nefarious forms of warfare ingenious or cowardly?

About this title

About the Author:

Adrienne Mayor is a classical folklorist who specializes in the early history of science. A frequent contributor to Archaeology, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Folklore, and the Journal of American Folklore, she is often interviewed on NPR, the BBC, and on the History and Learning channels.

From Publishers Weekly:

This dense but highly informative volume narrates the long pretechnological history of the use of poisons and fire in warfare. Mayor, who has published in Military History Quarterly, begins with the first legend of poisoned arrows: Hercules and his quiver of missiles tipped with the hydra's venom (probably snake venom). He and his wife also figure in an early use of an externally applied poison-the "poisoned" garments that killed them both with an inextinguishable flame may have been impregnated with saltpeter. Using their powers of observation and a sound if rule-of-thumb grasp of cause and effect, our not-so-primitive ancestors went on to set fires, throw fires and project fires (Greek fire reached its apex when flung from a ship-mounted flame thrower). They also put poison on arrowheads, in food and wine and in water supplies, tamed elephants to use as living tanks, bottled scorpions to throw over walls and knew about the problems of accidental casualties, enemy retaliation and lowering the ethical level of warfare. Mayor clearly describes how some of the poisons caused gruesome deaths, and Greek fire was essentially napalm. One antielephant weapon consisted of coating live pigs with pitch, setting them on fire and driving them at the elephants. The sheer mass of information will be daunting for the novice, particularly to one not familiar with classical mythology, but the book is otherwise absolutely absorbing, if macabre, and a formidable source on classical warfare, with bibliography, illustrations and annotations to serve further research.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Overlook Duckworth
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0715632574
• ISBN 13: 9780715632574
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1