Greek Fire was incredibly advanced for its time, it required a specially trained team to operate. When a foreign army once managed to capture the weapon, they still couldn’t figure out how to use it. Sources: World History Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Brittanica, History Extra, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Unconventional Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor (2022), Secrecy, Technology, and War: Greek Fire and the Defense of Byzantium, 678-1204 by Alex Roland (1992) and

Greek Fire is the ultimate secret. The recipe was guarded so closely that it died with the Byzantine Empire. As a result Greek Fire remained a mystery for nearly 1,400 years, not because we lacked the chemistry, but because nobody thought to combine history, chemistry and geology and actually test it at full scale. This is the ultimate story of interdisciplinary science at its finest, solving ancient mysteries with hands on science. Love it!! Further reading: John Haldon’s publications through P