Fire ships have always been fascinating to me and it has been a extremely revealing to see how this technology led to "futuristic" tech such as the land based grenadier and flamethrower units we covered in a previous episode: th-cam.com/video/Q40yMWRYt7U/w-d-xo.html. What Units of History should we cover next?
In this video they focus on the greek fire but in truth this muslim invasion was going to succeed if not for the aid by the new bulgarian khanate/tsardom which by itself was another arch nemesis of the byzantine empire , during the second siege khan Tervel aided the greeks with anywhere between 15 to 30 thousand soldiers most of which eastern styled cavalry for this help he was sainted in orthodox church and named saviour of Christianity , few years later the bulgarian state and byzantine empire would go to war with one another for yet another time (there is over 500 years of recorded history between them of which most are wars)
Agreed, between in fighting and economic turmoil, the Byzantines were surrounded by enemies and their frenemies were as deadly as their straight up enemy's. The supposed crusades did more damage to allied states and nations then it did in the long term against the supposed enemies of their religion. and geographically the Byzantine empire was one big open border to enemy's with very little natural geographical protections (for instance Russia was protected by vast lad features and cold weather conditions that made access almost impossible for an invading force). Add to this the historic achievements of the roman empire and the Byzantine empire itself was more like an object to be crushed to show the might of the current ruler then a place to be regarded as a noble friend. PS: I will concede that many Byzantine emperor's were very arrogant and burnt more bridges then they built, a little but of humility towards the right nations could of secured large sections of the Byzantine border and allowed for less stress from constant invasion to hold the empire for a longer amount of time.
@@locomotivebearingdown5381 They were Greeks and hellenized populations with Roman citizenship. They were Romans politically but other than that what "Roman-spirited" are you even talking about?
*That would have been an epic moment to put to film;* *After centuries of saying “Loose!” to your ranged soldiers, a Roman navy commander, though outnumbered and besieged on all sides, would lift the veil off the dragon head, get his troops to aim the hose end, and finally say THE one word…* *”FIRE!!”* 🔥
The Chinese also came up with their own flamethrowers that was based on the Byzantine design. Also the Song dynasty who pioneered these early gunpowder weapons invented the first paddle boats which didn't need sails. If only the Byzantines had those types of mechanisms for their fireships. They could have been even more devastating.
You guys don't know how much you are giving to the history loving community. You guys are a treasure for growing TH-cam history community and with these unique weapons/army special series you have found your own Greek Fire. I hope you guys never stop with these amazing hits. Thank you
Fun fact: The Greeks used extensively fire ships (without of course the Greek Fire which secret composition was lost centuries ago), during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1830), in order to burn the Ottoman ships, with great success.
Fun fact: the correct name is Roman fire known as Rhomaicon Pyr. This is the name by which it was known to the Romans. It was also called Thalassinon Pyr which means Sea fire. The term "Greek fire" was handed down into English from the Vatican, which called it "Ignis Graeca" in Latin.
@@pseudomonas03 *Hygron Pyr* is ALSO one of the names by which it was known. There were three names: Roman fire, sea fire and liquid fire. The term "Greek fire" is a misnomer given to it by Charlemagne's descendants with the goal of denying the name "Roman" to the true Roman state.
@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ That's because Greeks and Romans are one and the same by that time.. People who like to think that the Roman empire ended when Rome fell will say 'Greek fire".. People who actually know history will call it "Roman fire".. Just like with the terms "Byzantine empire" and "Roman empire"..
Most sailor s during the siege of Constantinople were actually Christians, many of them sons of former Roman subjects and were subtly pro-Roman, hence the massive 2nd armada defected to the Emperor.
@@aventidblechchlatechipfrap7465 This is a known fact. I cant grab my sources from every comment I did if this is pretty BASIC knowledge and not debatable. It's also common sense. The Islamic conquest of the former Roman provinces are just a few dozen years before. Most sailors and their sons are still Christians, especially in Africa.
I would be a bit skeptical of that. The ability to spew fire in all directions is impressive, but that doesn’t make it wise. Byzantine galleys were made of wood. If it surrounds itself with flames on all sides…that’s unlikely to end well.
I see the point you're trying to make here, but no offense, the comparison is SO bad lol. Comparing "paradigm shift" in naval strategy, fire ships would be slightly similar to aircraft carriers or submarines, but battleships in both World Wars fired rifled artillery from very long ranges . As David Blair pointed out, a fire ship wouldn't saturate the area around itself with flames the way a man-o'-war or ship-of-the-line would with cannonballs, because in order to avoid warping and rot despite the water, a wooden ship has to be treated with chemicals that also keep the wood flammable despite the water.
Fire ships were certainly a game changer! Imagine what a combination of Byzantine fire ships and Korean turtle ships would have been like! In modern naval warfare game changers were torpedoes, submarines and aircraft carriers. Of course now it is also missile systems. One can only imagine the terror felt by sailors when they first faced the fire ships!
The animated image of the parthian toying with a firebomb is particularily impressive. His expression suggests he's really tired of getting besieged all the time.
Loved the artwork and animations. Very impressive quality. Keep it up and I’ll keep watching. Awesome to also see the battle and drive plans and tactics explained. Fantastic video.
@@stefanvella9807 how comes it was Roman when the inhabitants of "Roomania" (Byzantium) were predominantly Greek, they were speaking Greek and they had Christian-Greek morals, coustoms and practices? Could you please explain that?
@@simsim6419 Not true -under the Macedonian emperors of 10th century the Byzantines gave the Arabs a thrashing in nearly every field recapturing Crete and areas of Anatolia and Syria -and the papal and Italian fleet gave the Arabs a complete thrashing in the battle of Ostia off the coast of Italy after the Arabs had unsuccessfully attacked Rome.There is a fresco of the battle in the Vatican by the great painter Raphael.That was around 862 A.D.
@@randomelite4562 You seem not to understand what ethnicity means. If they were ethnically Greek, then why did they claim by and large to be Romans who were descended from ancient Romans? Why did many of them claim to be descended from non-Greeks? They cannot be ethnically Greek because a) they did not self-identity as Greeks, b) there were a variety of ethnic mixtures within the eastern Roman state that was clearly not Greek. Hence, why many Isaurians, Iberians and other non-Greek peoples served in the government and army. Greek was nothing more than a lingua franca of the Roman state. Their culture was also not mostly Greek. Their religion was Judeo-Christian. Their government, their economy, their military, their politics, architecture and customs were also widely Latino-Roman. Their music was highly inspired by Syrian traditions. There was also an inflow of eastern customs like Persian and Arabic, let alone also Slavic influences. This was natural, since Anatolia was the crossroads of both Asia and Europe, and also in close proximity to Africa. The Greek cultural part came in the way of the Greek language, and inheritance of Greek literary tradition. In many ways, though, the eastern Romans were much less Hellenic than the ancient Greeks. There was no drama, no theater, no Olympic Games. No polytheism. The memory of the ancient Hellenes was also disparaged. Your claim that the eastern Romans were "Greeks" rings hollow. They themselves were proud to be Romans. The insistence that they were not Greeks was all too evident.
@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ They were both Greek and Roman. They identified as Romans, for the same reason that I, a black person whose parents come from the Caribbean, identify as America. Simply put, they were Greeks who had Roman citizenship. By this time, the empire was largely based in Greece and Anatolia, and Greek had replaced Latin as the official language.
@@johnlewis3891 That is a woeful analogy that you spun, if there ever was one. Your self-identification as an American being also a black speaking English does not equate to the eastern Romans self-identification as Romans, speaking Greek and being of different backgrounds. The circumstances behind the two identities, American and medieval Roman, are different. First of all, in your example, your skin hue is dark. You are from the Caribbean. You speak English (perhaps as a mother tongue?). So what exactly are you, and how does your background equate to an eastern Roman who might have been born in Syria to Syrian parents, but speaks Greek and identifies as a Roman? According to your logical train, Americans are both English and American. They are not. They are simply English-speaking Americans, and anyone who thinks that Americans are English would be rebuked by Americans for saying so. Likewise, the medieval Romans who spoke Greek would have said that they are Romans. They would have rebuked you for calling them Greeks.
Making Greek Fire back in the day must've been extremely dangerous. I don't envy the poor souls who had to put up with the process of making it everyday.
It’s crazy how far ahead of their time the Romans were, even past their territorial prime of antiquity. Can’t help but imagine how different Greece would be today if the west and east could have set aside their differences better.
Well, it's not only West/East differences, it's also numerous civil wars and of course endless invasions. Just for a quick example, during Greek Independence (1821-1832), 2 Greek civil wars took place. Yes, 2.
@@ThomasGazis the confusion is global my friend, even between us Greeks. The truth is that the vast majority in the area at the time was culturally and linguistically Greek. But they called themselves Romii, they were part of what was left of the "Roman" Empire ( Vasilia ton Romeon). The confusion is even bigger when Westerners and Easterners called them Greeks, Hellenes, Junans. I think that Romans faded away, but they left their print, in East and West. Administratively and militarily (this one debatable) Eastern Roman Empire was Roman, the most Roman at the time. But culturally, linguistically and ethnically (again debatable on areas) Roman was devoured by the Greek massive culture. Lost but not without a trace. In conclusion, trying to describe medieval Greeks/Romans in English is difficult. In Greek and Latin it's easier.
@@Billswiftgti there is no confusion at all! There is a specific movement of some nation-nihilists, anti-Christian bigots to deliberately de-Hellenize Byzantium and turn it into Roman! By doing so they are falsifying history but they don't care for that, as long as they are serving their own agenda!
@@ThomasGazis well they are a bit late if they want to turn it into Roman. But in the nation nihilism part, I agree. There is a whole globalism effort, but there is also a much older effort to wipe out Greek presence outside Southern Greece, and subsequently wipe out Hellenism entirely. And these two efforts benefit from eachother. But they won't succeed, be 100% sure about that.
Equivalent game changing tech would include field deployable cannons, nuclear bombs, the Caravel, the dreadnought, the steam engine, and the mińe ball.
The crews collected feces and urine in buckets during their journey instead of dumping them into the sea, and the flames could be effectively smothered with this piss-pack mixture
Large dragon heads spewing violent fire. Must have been utterly terrifying and devastating. Just thinking what the self confident besieging navy would have faced makes shivers run down my spine. Holy...
The byzantine fire ship was indeed one of the most formidable navy units at that time and it undoubtedly helped tremendously in both sieges of Constantinople, however, your other facts in the video are a bit blurry. In the second siege of Constantinople (717-718) the main Arab army consisted mostly of overland footmen rather than navy ships. According to some sources, the land based army was between 100,000 (10th century Arab writer al-Mas'udi) and 200,000 (probably exaggerated, reported by Syriac chronicler Michael the Syrian). It wasn't the fire ship that saved the city, but the emperor Leo shrewd diplomacy - while delaying negotiations with Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, the Arab army leader, he enlisted help from various neighbors, mainly from the Bulgars, who settled north from Thrace, but also some smaller Khazars and Armenian forces. According to Byzantine records, Khan Tervel of the Bulgars attacked the Umayaad army in the rear decimating half of it and trapping the other half between his army and the walls of Constantinople and so the besieging army became besieged instead. Arabs were aware of the fire ship capabilities from their failed blockade before and were prepared this time. The army was well-provisioned, with Arab accounts reporting high mounds of supplies piled up in their camp, and had even brought along wheat to sow and harvest the next year, but with the Bulgars trapping and effectively besieging them, they were unable to do so. Consequently, the Arab army was ravaged by epidemics and had no other option but to try and fight. According to Theophanes the Confessor, Bulgars killed another 22,000 soldiers in the second fight and by doing so ended the siege itself. The same Khan Tervel was later canonized as a saint from both the eastern Orthodox and also from the western Catholic churches, thus named St. Trivelius (or Tribellius) Theoktist the savior of Europe, clearly signifying the importance of these events, which modern history tend to underestimate.
@@l-nolazck-rn24 My brother in Christ there isn't a single nation in the world that recorded history as well as the Romans and it's not even remotely close. You can find it absolutely anywhere, google the battle of your choice and you'll be bombarded with endless well-sourced and well analysed descriptions of anything.
@@gelisgeo1309 except "Byzantine" terminology was designed for it to strip it of its Roman identity. And there is no need to refer it as eastern after western half of the emperi tě no longer existed. They simply named The Roman Empire.
Some years ago, in the History Channel, I watched this program titled Ancient Discoveries. A chapter was dedicated to the topic of mysterious and highly effective Greek Fire!
The more I think about the reason I love Invicta and docs like it has to do with the Voice behind them idk who you are guy but you got one of them Sir David Attenborough voices
Some of you seem hellbent in killing any connection between the Greeks and The Eastern Roman empire. Greek here. I consider the history of Eastern Roman empire, a part of my historical background. Whether you think that the term Byzantine doesn't fit, or that it was never Greek(it was, but only in part, as it was after all a multi ethnic empire just like its counterpart in the West), it makes no difference. We are all, ALL OF US, the products of thousands of years of history.
Yeah a lot of people see connecting greece with byzantium as disconnecting it with rome but the truth is that greece decended from Rome just as much as Italy did, perhaps even more so due to how much longer the Eastern empire lasted
@@alexmcaree7854 not really, the Romans never considered themselves heirs of Greek culture, since they considered it inferior, and the Eastern Romans never considered themselves or called themselves Greeks or Byzantines, they were Romans. In addition, the empire never gave importance to ethnic origin or race, so that now we can say that they represented Greek culture or Greek ethnicity
@@Aioradeleo27 I never said the Romans were heirs of ancient Greece, what I meant is that MODERN Greece is decended culturally from the Eastern roman empire
@@Aioradeleo27 Romans didn't consider the greek culture inferior, that's why they were influenced to a significant degree by it. When it comes to the eastern Romans, they were Greeks with Roman citizenship, ethnically-Greeks/politically Romans.. .As they themselves were saying they were Greeks in race that were calling themselves Romans, a name that they took from New Rome (Constantinople) (" Έλληνες όντες τω γένει, ρωμαίους εαυτούς ονομάζομεν, και αληθώς γε μην· εκ γαρ της Νέας Ρώμης η παρωνυμία αύτη προσκεκλήρωται ημίν") In other words they certainly considered and were calling themselves Greeks and that's something that can be confirmed by multiple byzantine sources that have survived. There are Byzantine sources with slurs and insults about Roman citizens that weren't ethnically Greek, so I wouldn't say that ethnic origin was of no importance.
With perhaps the exception of the cannon (for siege) problem with those weapons is that the were really not game changers , short of there psychological effects. Most encounters in those days were still decided by the blade.
I wonder if there is a weapon as devastative effective as pure fire. if for most the psychological effect. just seeing someone with a flame thrower active was and often still is enough to make others just stop fighting. the down site is that often even the friendly soldiers of said person operating the machine would want to keep away from it.
I'd rather fight a guy with a flamethrower then with an assault rifle. Its just that we got used to guns. But show an AK to a Greek guy. You point a stick at someone and their head explodes. They would think you're a god.
Flamethrowers in ww1 and ww2 had high amounts of casualties inless put into good positions because everyone shot at them, the shotgun and gas weaponry are more effective at this
@@magniwalterbutnotwaltermag1479 it's more the psychological effect a fire has. I mean that is just taping in to a very basic instinct. Sure it can be slow at first but once going it will also take a lot to stop it unless it can burn itself out. in warfare most flames were aimed at buildings and to a smaller extend armoured vehicles (that at times could act more as a building)
In 941 when the rus invade briefly under lord Igor as i heard it pronounced, I'll mention that the rus are in fact the Vikings. Tjey used to travel grom the Baltic sea to the Black Sea by means of portaging their ships between rivers. I've heard mentioned that the Vikings would be employed as mercenaries throughout middle east but i ain't verified it .
@@ΝΥΞ_Ω Romans, not Greeks. They literally were not Greeks because they were proudly calling themselves Romans, while steadfastly denying that they were Greeks.
Flamethrowers are an interesting weapon, theoretically they could've made really good ones way before this as well. A pressure vessel is basically just a sealed pot, bronze would be a suitable material and with vax you could cast some intricate parts as well, you could make relief and 1 way ball valves using a number of different materials, leather and grease could be used to make it pressure tight. A skilled metal worker could even have made a man portable one thousands of years ago. Fuel could be found in nature or you could make tar from wood, if you distill it down the same way gasoline is distilled today you could make it even more potent. Sure guns could've been made way back as well if people had figured out gunpowder, but you need some high levels of skill or machines to make more then a single shot weapon so even with a gun you would be dead if you where severely outnumbered.
and stirrups, with all their simplicity, came surprisingly late. For example, chainmail for centuries, but still no stirrups invented. That always blows my mind.
Loved the video. It will be much appreciated if someone could guide me to a research on explosive pots, if it could be regarded to the Assyrian realief of 9th century BC would be best as I couldn`t find anything on that matter. Keep up guys! History is sexy!
Hey invicta, just wanna wanna say that I like this series (units of history) so much and would like a video on the rashidun caliphate army (particularly the rashidun cavalry) to know how they beat two imperial empires and what tactics they used. Thanks.
Fun fact: the correct name is *Roman fire* known as *Rhomaicon Pyr.* This is the name by which it was known to the Romans. It was also called *Thalassinon Pyr* which means *Sea fire* and also "Hygron Pyr* which means "liquid fire". The term "Greek fire" was handed down into English from the Vatican, which called it "Ignis Graeca" in Latin.
When I was a kid.....we used to experiment with our own concoctions, and try them out at my grampa's auto salvage. We came up with one concoction in a molotov cocktail that burned for 2-3 days.
A small overlooked important tool of mounted warfare was the Hunnic stirup, finally making horse stable weapons platform to strike or fire in all directions from all positions , the stirrup or the 3 pointed "anti cavilry mine" that always landed point up and were laid in key positions
Really interesting to actually know and understand more about these then just "and then the Greek Fire won the battle" edit: I meant that this is interesting to know more then you learn in school kind of thing but it came out weird when you read it
Something similar to Greek fire was used during the Vietnam conflict called napalm. It was a thick jelly like substance that had to be scraped off. Water had no effect.
I wonder what would’ve happened to Europe if the Muslims were able to conquer Constantinople at this point of history if the Greek fire wasn’t available?
Well, they did conquer good parts of the roman remains in Spain, so that's a good indication. Once the central European forces were strong enough again, they were driven out again. Probably similar would have happened in the east, too. That's the thing about invasions and conquests though, it's extremely difficult to impossible to completely supplant or assimilate the native population. It's just a numbers game in the end. The fact that the Romans *were* able to do is why they are so revered today.
@@justmoritz Didn't the Turks pretty much did that? There's very little Greek presence left on Asia Minor. And then there's North Africa which is majority Arab now. Yes it's possible to supplant the previous inhabitants. You just need get rid of as many of the conquered initially and then convert and outbreed them whatever remained. Some would even argue it's happening in Europe now, without a shot being fired.
Imagine the young Arab naval men growing up thinking the dragons were silly myths told by old men.....only to witness them not only show up, but decimate thousands right in front of you. The psychological impact of legend coming true must have been almost unimaginably terrifying for them in those first few moments.
Wow, that was a roller-coaster of a video! Better than any fiction - makes the GoT fireship episode look tame. Especially when their fleet was otherwise engaged, so they got some old tubs due for the scrap yard, fixed them up, armed them to the teeth, and filled them full of their ablest veterans. Then sent those plucky underdogs to face far superior numbers. That's a blockbuster movie right there!
The term “Byzantine Empire” is a bit of a misnomer. The Byzantines understood their empire to be a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire and referred to themselves as “Romans.” The use of the term “Byzantine” only became widespread in Europe after Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
Much later, actually: it is the term developed by German 19th century scholars. In the 11th C onwards Western European powers would often call it "The Greek Empire" or just "The Emperor in Constantinople" or "The Greeks."
@@kristiangustafson4130 It was an illusion, of course. One of the most common mistakes made in history. For example, Europeans called Egyptians and Sudanese Arabs. This is of course not true. They saw themselves as Romans, and that's what matters. Also, the Roman Empire was a single state. Being influenced by the Hellenes does not make them a Hellenic state. If you see the late Roman Empire as a Greek state, then you should also see the Tungusic and Mongolic states the Yuan and Qing as a Sinitic states, a mistake no one who can use even a quarter of their brain will make.
@@papazataklaattiranimam From Doukas Vatatzes. The emperor himself: "So you write in your letter that in our race(genos) of the Greeks(ton Hellenon) wisdoms reigns…that from our race(genos) wisdom flourished and its benefits were spread and to the other people, that’s true . But how it happens to ignore, or if you don’t ignore ,how did you suppress it, that along with the royal(vasilevousa) Konstantinoupolis and the kingship in this world was given to our race from Konstantinos the Great, who accepted the call from Christos and ruled with decency and honesty. Is there anyone who doesn’t know that his succession(Konstantinos’) passed to our race(genos) and we are his heirs and inheritors? You demand from us not to ignore your privileges. And we, too , have the similar request from you to see and recognize our right to rule the state of Constantinoupolis, that started from the age of Constantinos the Great and lasted one thousand years until it reached our reign. The patriarchs(genarches) of my kingship, from the families of Doukas and Komnenos, not to mention the others, come from the Greek race(apo hellenika geni). So these fellow countrymen for many centuries had Constantinoupolis in their authority. And them the Church of Rome and their principals called Emperors of the Romans(Autokratores Romaion). So we declare to your holiness and to all Christians that never shall we stop fighting and struggle against the conquerors of Constantinoupolis. It was like we disrespect the laws of nature, and the institutions of our fatherland, and the graves of our fathers and the holy temples of God, if we didn’t fight with all our power. We have with us the righteous God, who helps those who are wronged and oppose to the wrongful…”
@@papazataklaattiranimam And those two weren't the only ones. That's why Vatatzes isn't talking only about his own dynasty but about the other dynasties and his race as a whole as well: "along with the royal(vasilevousa) Konstantinoupolis and the kingship in this world was given to our race from Konstantinos the Great" "Is there anyone who doesn’t know that his succession(Konstantinos’) passed to our race(genos) and we are his heirs and inheritors?" "recognize our right to rule the state of Constantinoupolis, that started from the age of Constantinos the Great and lasted one thousand years until it reached our reign. The patriarchs(genarches) of my kingship, from the families of Doukas and Komnenos, not to mention the others, come from the Greek race(apo hellenika geni). So these fellow countrymen for many centuries had Constantinoupolis in their authority. And them the Church of Rome and their principals called Emperors of the Romans(Autokratores Romaion)."
Greek fire was probably something akin to napalm. It can be made with orange juice concentrate, accelerant and a few other ingredients. Wouldn't be hard for them to figure out.
Fire ships have always been fascinating to me and it has been a extremely revealing to see how this technology led to "futuristic" tech such as the land based grenadier and flamethrower units we covered in a previous episode: th-cam.com/video/Q40yMWRYt7U/w-d-xo.html. What Units of History should we cover next?
The Hashashin.
The Ronin.
Ninja.
Sicarii.
Giant siege engines of the ~9'th century.
It's honestly insane how long the Byzantines managed to hold on with all of their miraculous comebacks
Thats why they were the Phoenix
It's because they were Roman-spirited. Romans were one of the toughest people if not the toughest.
In this video they focus on the greek fire but in truth this muslim invasion was going to succeed if not for the aid by the new bulgarian khanate/tsardom which by itself was another arch nemesis of the byzantine empire , during the second siege khan Tervel aided the greeks with anywhere between 15 to 30 thousand soldiers most of which eastern styled cavalry for this help he was sainted in orthodox church and named saviour of Christianity , few years later the bulgarian state and byzantine empire would go to war with one another for yet another time (there is over 500 years of recorded history between them of which most are wars)
Agreed, between in fighting and economic turmoil, the Byzantines were surrounded by enemies and their frenemies were as deadly as their straight up enemy's.
The supposed crusades did more damage to allied states and nations then it did in the long term against the supposed enemies of their religion. and geographically the Byzantine empire was one big open border to enemy's with very little natural geographical protections (for instance Russia was protected by vast lad features and cold weather conditions that made access almost impossible for an invading force).
Add to this the historic achievements of the roman empire and the Byzantine empire itself was more like an object to be crushed to show the might of the current ruler then a place to be regarded as a noble friend.
PS: I will concede that many Byzantine emperor's were very arrogant and burnt more bridges then they built, a little but of humility towards the right nations could of secured large sections of the Byzantine border and allowed for less stress from constant invasion to hold the empire for a longer amount of time.
@@locomotivebearingdown5381 They were Greeks and hellenized populations with Roman citizenship. They were Romans politically but other than that what "Roman-spirited" are you even talking about?
*That would have been an epic moment to put to film;*
*After centuries of saying “Loose!” to your ranged soldiers, a Roman navy commander, though outnumbered and besieged on all sides, would lift the veil off the dragon head, get his troops to aim the hose end, and finally say THE one word…*
*”FIRE!!”* 🔥
That exact word was πῦρ (Pyr)
It draw its way in the english language : pyrotechnics.
Ooor dracaris :)
PYRRRRRRR
Latinos called it: Ignis Graecus 🇬🇷🔥
awesome video! would love to see early gunpowder weapons such as firelances, rocket arrows, and explosive grenades of the 11th century
I’d like that
Yeah. And not the mention the hand cannon, the early handgun.
Totally would love to see that.
The Chinese also came up with their own flamethrowers that was based on the Byzantine design. Also the Song dynasty who pioneered these early gunpowder weapons invented the first paddle boats which didn't need sails. If only the Byzantines had those types of mechanisms for their fireships. They could have been even more devastating.
Love your channel man
You guys don't know how much you are giving to the history loving community. You guys are a treasure for growing TH-cam history community and with these unique weapons/army special series you have found your own Greek Fire. I hope you guys never stop with these amazing hits.
Thank you
Fun fact: The Greeks used extensively fire ships (without of course the Greek Fire which secret composition was lost centuries ago), during the Greek War of Independence (1821-1830), in order to burn the Ottoman ships, with great success.
Fun fact: the correct name is Roman fire known as Rhomaicon Pyr. This is the name by which it was known to the Romans. It was also called Thalassinon Pyr which means Sea fire. The term "Greek fire" was handed down into English from the Vatican, which called it "Ignis Graeca" in Latin.
@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ The correct name is actually "Υγρον Πυρ", which means "Liquid Fire". This was the name given by its inventor Kallinikos.
@@pseudomonas03 *Hygron Pyr* is ALSO one of the names by which it was known. There were three names: Roman fire, sea fire and liquid fire. The term "Greek fire" is a misnomer given to it by Charlemagne's descendants with the goal of denying the name "Roman" to the true Roman state.
Whatever. Anyway my reference had to do with the fire ships, that the Greeks used against the Ottoman ships during the Greek War of Independence.
@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ That's because Greeks and Romans are one and the same by that time..
People who like to think that the Roman empire ended when Rome fell will say 'Greek fire".. People who actually know history will call it "Roman fire"..
Just like with the terms "Byzantine empire" and "Roman empire"..
Imagine being an Arab sailor on a jolly swashbuckling adventure then seeing Greek Fire upclose for the first time
👳🏽♂️🔥💀
Most sailor s during the siege of Constantinople were actually Christians, many of them sons of former Roman subjects and were subtly pro-Roman, hence the massive 2nd armada defected to the Emperor.
@@majorianus8055 source;Dude trust me
@@aventidblechchlatechipfrap7465 could always individually verify. 😂 Not like he has to cite every source when making a statement
@@aventidblechchlatechipfrap7465 This is a known fact. I cant grab my sources from every comment I did if this is pretty BASIC knowledge and not debatable. It's also common sense. The Islamic conquest of the former Roman provinces are just a few dozen years before. Most sailors and their sons are still Christians, especially in Africa.
With flamethrowers mounting on all sides of the galley, this literally made the Greek Fire ships ancient equivalent of WWII battleships
I would be a bit skeptical of that. The ability to spew fire in all directions is impressive, but that doesn’t make it wise. Byzantine galleys were made of wood. If it surrounds itself with flames on all sides…that’s unlikely to end well.
I see the point you're trying to make here, but no offense, the comparison is SO bad lol.
Comparing "paradigm shift" in naval strategy, fire ships would be slightly similar to aircraft carriers or submarines, but battleships in both World Wars fired rifled artillery from very long ranges . As David Blair pointed out, a fire ship wouldn't saturate the area around itself with flames the way a man-o'-war or ship-of-the-line would with cannonballs, because in order to avoid warping and rot despite the water, a wooden ship has to be treated with chemicals that also keep the wood flammable despite the water.
Technically medieval, not ancient
@@davidblair9877 i imagine they were smart enough to NOT "piss agaist the wind".
@@BringBacktheGreeks Winds shift directions all the time. Especially those who died from friendly fire via gas can vouch for that.
The Gregorian chant in the background really sets the atmosphere for this great video. Well done.
Fire ships were certainly a game changer! Imagine what a combination of Byzantine fire ships and Korean turtle ships would have been like! In modern naval warfare game changers were torpedoes, submarines and aircraft carriers. Of course now it is also missile systems. One can only imagine the terror felt by sailors when they first faced the fire ships!
Greek fire is called Liquid fire in Greek which sounds pretty cool
The animated image of the parthian toying with a firebomb is particularily impressive. His expression suggests he's really tired of getting besieged all the time.
Only the best Naval Unit in M2TW until the discovery of gundpowder.
Nough said.
M2tw enjoyers
Loved the artwork and animations. Very impressive quality. Keep it up and I’ll keep watching. Awesome to also see the battle and drive plans and tactics explained. Fantastic video.
The greek fire is probably the closest thing to fantasy in history
What?
@@ermislyr he meant fantasy weapons, like lightsabers and that kind of stuff.
Romans🤮🤮
They’re not real?
I mean i nuke is pretty magical too
Thanks for the video! Consistently blown away by the quality of historical content some creators are producing.
learn the difference between History, myth and fairytale.
Its a shame no great movie about the Romans of Byzantium exist.
Political+Religious reasons and a basic lack of knowledge to the mainstream audience, so a movie wont make alot of revenue
Needs diversity to be on the market
They were not Romans though but mostly Greeks!
@@ThomasGazis I said Romans cos the empire was Roman
@@stefanvella9807 how comes it was Roman when the inhabitants of "Roomania" (Byzantium) were predominantly Greek, they were speaking Greek and they had Christian-Greek morals, coustoms and practices? Could you please explain that?
This technology and the techniques to carry them out successfully was amazing 👏🏻 🙌🏻 😀
The Arab navy defeated the Byzantines in every single naval battle
@@simsim6419 lol no.
@@simsim6419 Not true -under the Macedonian emperors of 10th century the Byzantines gave the Arabs a thrashing in nearly every field recapturing Crete and areas of Anatolia and Syria -and the papal and Italian fleet gave the Arabs a complete thrashing in the battle of Ostia off the coast of Italy after the Arabs had unsuccessfully attacked Rome.There is a fresco of the battle in the Vatican by the great painter Raphael.That was around 862 A.D.
@@kaloarepo288 the Omayyads took tax from the pope through Ostia for over 70 years.
It's amazing how much history the Greeks have
Romans, not Greeks.
@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ They were ethnically and (mostly) culturally Greek. Politically they were Romans.
@@randomelite4562 You seem not to understand what ethnicity means. If they were ethnically Greek, then why did they claim by and large to be Romans who were descended from ancient Romans? Why did many of them claim to be descended from non-Greeks? They cannot be ethnically Greek because a) they did not self-identity as Greeks, b) there were a variety of ethnic mixtures within the eastern Roman state that was clearly not Greek. Hence, why many Isaurians, Iberians and other non-Greek peoples served in the government and army. Greek was nothing more than a lingua franca of the Roman state. Their culture was also not mostly Greek. Their religion was Judeo-Christian. Their government, their economy, their military, their politics, architecture and customs were also widely Latino-Roman. Their music was highly inspired by Syrian traditions. There was also an inflow of eastern customs like Persian and Arabic, let alone also Slavic influences. This was natural, since Anatolia was the crossroads of both Asia and Europe, and also in close proximity to Africa. The Greek cultural part came in the way of the Greek language, and inheritance of Greek literary tradition. In many ways, though, the eastern Romans were much less Hellenic than the ancient Greeks. There was no drama, no theater, no Olympic Games. No polytheism. The memory of the ancient Hellenes was also disparaged. Your claim that the eastern Romans were "Greeks" rings hollow. They themselves were proud to be Romans. The insistence that they were not Greeks was all too evident.
@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ They were both Greek and Roman. They identified as Romans, for the same reason that I, a black person whose parents come from the Caribbean, identify as America. Simply put, they were Greeks who had Roman citizenship. By this time, the empire was largely based in Greece and Anatolia, and Greek had replaced Latin as the official language.
@@johnlewis3891 That is a woeful analogy that you spun, if there ever was one. Your self-identification as an American being also a black speaking English does not equate to the eastern Romans self-identification as Romans, speaking Greek and being of different backgrounds. The circumstances behind the two identities, American and medieval Roman, are different. First of all, in your example, your skin hue is dark. You are from the Caribbean. You speak English (perhaps as a mother tongue?). So what exactly are you, and how does your background equate to an eastern Roman who might have been born in Syria to Syrian parents, but speaks Greek and identifies as a Roman? According to your logical train, Americans are both English and American. They are not. They are simply English-speaking Americans, and anyone who thinks that Americans are English would be rebuked by Americans for saying so. Likewise, the medieval Romans who spoke Greek would have said that they are Romans. They would have rebuked you for calling them Greeks.
Very good! Best and most comprehensive presentation I have seen in over 50 years
Making Greek Fire back in the day must've been extremely dangerous. I don't envy the poor souls who had to put up with the process of making it everyday.
I love the smell of greek fire in the morning.
I wish I could go back in time and watch these battles like a floating eye
The best weapon is the one your enemy knows nothing about. History is nuts and I F-in LOVE IT!!!
Can someone please tell me what the background music is in this video? It's really nice and I would love to hear it on it's own.
The chanting part***
I want to know this too
I picked it off the audio jungle website. I think it's "Byzantine Chant 3"
@@InvictaHistory thanks!
@@InvictaHistory legend! Glad you noticed my comment and responded! Keep up the good work!
I think the first part is"gregorian" chant,the second is you come like lightning.
In Greece we call this "Liquid Fire" (Υγρό πύρ)
It’s crazy how far ahead of their time the Romans were, even past their territorial prime of antiquity.
Can’t help but imagine how different Greece would be today if the west and east could have set aside their differences better.
Well, it's not only West/East differences, it's also numerous civil wars and of course endless invasions. Just for a quick example, during Greek Independence (1821-1832), 2 Greek civil wars took place. Yes, 2.
Another history falsifier, deliberately calling the Greek - Byzantines "Romans"...in order to serve a rather dark agenda...
@@ThomasGazis the confusion is global my friend, even between us Greeks.
The truth is that the vast majority in the area at the time was culturally and linguistically Greek. But they called themselves Romii, they were part of what was left of the "Roman" Empire ( Vasilia ton Romeon). The confusion is even bigger when Westerners and Easterners called them Greeks, Hellenes, Junans.
I think that Romans faded away, but they left their print, in East and West. Administratively and militarily (this one debatable) Eastern Roman Empire was Roman, the most Roman at the time. But culturally, linguistically and ethnically (again debatable on areas) Roman was devoured by the Greek massive culture.
Lost but not without a trace.
In conclusion, trying to describe medieval Greeks/Romans in English is difficult. In Greek and Latin it's easier.
@@Billswiftgti there is no confusion at all! There is a specific movement of some nation-nihilists, anti-Christian bigots to deliberately de-Hellenize Byzantium and turn it into Roman! By doing so they are falsifying history but they don't care for that, as long as they are serving their own agenda!
@@ThomasGazis well they are a bit late if they want to turn it into Roman. But in the nation nihilism part, I agree. There is a whole globalism effort, but there is also a much older effort to wipe out Greek presence outside Southern Greece, and subsequently wipe out Hellenism entirely.
And these two efforts benefit from eachother. But they won't succeed, be 100% sure about that.
Equivalent game changing tech would include field deployable cannons, nuclear bombs, the Caravel, the dreadnought, the steam engine, and the mińe ball.
The gatling gun
Also the chariot
@@averyshaw2142 better to go with self loading weapons since there were a bunch of weapons similar to the gatling developed at the same time.
Turtle ships of Koreans.
@@nagendraraman6410 OH there were indeed inovative and were uses to they full effect by the admiral.
Curious how these ships prevents friendly or self-fire
Probably by using copper and leather as isolation.
They had friendly fire turned off
You can’t light your own ship on fire
Source total war
By telling the soldiers not to play with fire
The crews collected feces and urine in buckets during their journey instead of dumping them into the sea, and the flames could be effectively smothered with this piss-pack mixture
Large dragon heads spewing violent fire. Must have been utterly terrifying and devastating. Just thinking what the self confident besieging navy would have faced makes shivers run down my spine. Holy...
The byzantine fire ship was indeed one of the most formidable navy units at that time and it undoubtedly helped tremendously in both sieges of Constantinople, however, your other facts in the video are a bit blurry. In the second siege of Constantinople (717-718) the main Arab army consisted mostly of overland footmen rather than navy ships. According to some sources, the land based army was between 100,000 (10th century Arab writer al-Mas'udi) and 200,000 (probably exaggerated, reported by Syriac chronicler Michael the Syrian). It wasn't the fire ship that saved the city, but the emperor Leo shrewd diplomacy - while delaying negotiations with Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik, the Arab army leader, he enlisted help from various neighbors, mainly from the Bulgars, who settled north from Thrace, but also some smaller Khazars and Armenian forces. According to Byzantine records, Khan Tervel of the Bulgars attacked the Umayaad army in the rear decimating half of it and trapping the other half between his army and the walls of Constantinople and so the besieging army became besieged instead. Arabs were aware of the fire ship capabilities from their failed blockade before and were prepared this time. The army was well-provisioned, with Arab accounts reporting high mounds of supplies piled up in their camp, and had even brought along wheat to sow and harvest the next year, but with the Bulgars trapping and effectively besieging them, they were unable to do so. Consequently, the Arab army was ravaged by epidemics and had no other option but to try and fight. According to Theophanes the Confessor, Bulgars killed another 22,000 soldiers in the second fight and by doing so ended the siege itself. The same Khan Tervel was later canonized as a saint from both the eastern Orthodox and also from the western Catholic churches, thus named St. Trivelius (or Tribellius) Theoktist the savior of Europe, clearly signifying the importance of these events, which modern history tend to underestimate.
Where can I learn more about this? It sounds really interesting.
@@l-nolazck-rn24 My brother in Christ there isn't a single nation in the world that recorded history as well as the Romans and it's not even remotely close. You can find it absolutely anywhere, google the battle of your choice and you'll be bombarded with endless well-sourced and well analysed descriptions of anything.
Cool video! The Viking Varangian Guard in the Byzantine empire is also very interesting. Fascinating empire.
Favorite Empire to this day!! Byzantine for Life!!
Roman for life.
@@paprskomet graecorum imperium. Byzantin empire or East Roman Empire are the same.
@@gelisgeo1309 except "Byzantine" terminology was designed for it to strip it of its Roman identity. And there is no need to refer it as eastern after western half of the emperi tě no longer existed. They simply named The Roman Empire.
@@paprskomet this is your theory about what "must" be doing. I am not agree exactly
@@gelisgeo1309 Are you insane?That is not my theory those are simply facts...
A fascinating topic, thanks! 🔥
good video as always, and I would love to see one on The Mongols
Some years ago, in the History Channel, I watched this program titled Ancient Discoveries. A chapter was dedicated to the topic of mysterious and highly effective Greek Fire!
I have to correct a minor mistake here. The boetian flamethrower was used in 424 bc during the battle of Delium and not in 434bc that is mentioned.
The more I think about the reason I love Invicta and docs like it has to do with the Voice behind them idk who you are guy but you got one of them Sir David Attenborough voices
Some of you seem hellbent in killing any connection between the Greeks and The Eastern Roman empire. Greek here. I consider the history of Eastern Roman empire, a part of my historical background. Whether you think that the term Byzantine doesn't fit, or that it was never Greek(it was, but only in part, as it was after all a multi ethnic empire just like its counterpart in the West), it makes no difference. We are all, ALL OF US, the products of thousands of years of history.
Yeah a lot of people see connecting greece with byzantium as disconnecting it with rome but the truth is that greece decended from Rome just as much as Italy did, perhaps even more so due to how much longer the Eastern empire lasted
@@alexmcaree7854 Right.
@@alexmcaree7854 not really, the Romans never considered themselves heirs of Greek culture, since they considered it inferior, and the Eastern Romans never considered themselves or called themselves Greeks or Byzantines, they were Romans. In addition, the empire never gave importance to ethnic origin or race, so that now we can say that they represented Greek culture or Greek ethnicity
@@Aioradeleo27 I never said the Romans were heirs of ancient Greece, what I meant is that MODERN Greece is decended culturally from the Eastern roman empire
@@Aioradeleo27 Romans didn't consider the greek culture inferior, that's why they were influenced to a significant degree by it. When it comes to the eastern Romans, they were Greeks with Roman citizenship, ethnically-Greeks/politically Romans.. .As they themselves were saying they were Greeks in race that were calling themselves Romans, a name that they took from New Rome (Constantinople)
(" Έλληνες όντες τω γένει, ρωμαίους εαυτούς ονομάζομεν, και αληθώς γε μην· εκ γαρ της Νέας Ρώμης η παρωνυμία αύτη προσκεκλήρωται ημίν")
In other words they certainly considered and were calling themselves Greeks and that's something that can be confirmed by multiple byzantine sources that have survived.
There are Byzantine sources with slurs and insults about Roman citizens that weren't ethnically Greek, so I wouldn't say that ethnic origin was of no importance.
What an amazing Video, excellent work!!
I would love to see a video about the history of firearms from cannons to arquebuses to matchlocks to flintlocks
With perhaps the exception of the cannon (for siege) problem with those weapons is that the were really not game changers , short of there psychological effects.
Most encounters in those days were still decided by the blade.
I wonder if there is a weapon as devastative effective as pure fire. if for most the psychological effect.
just seeing someone with a flame thrower active was and often still is enough to make others just stop fighting. the down site is that often even the friendly soldiers of said person operating the machine would want to keep away from it.
I'd rather fight a guy with a flamethrower then with an assault rifle. Its just that we got used to guns. But show an AK to a Greek guy. You point a stick at someone and their head explodes. They would think you're a god.
Flamethrowers in ww1 and ww2 had high amounts of casualties inless put into good positions because everyone shot at them, the shotgun and gas weaponry are more effective at this
@@magniwalterbutnotwaltermag1479 it's more the psychological effect a fire has. I mean that is just taping in to a very basic instinct. Sure it can be slow at first but once going it will also take a lot to stop it unless it can burn itself out.
in warfare most flames were aimed at buildings and to a smaller extend armoured vehicles (that at times could act more as a building)
In 941 when the rus invade briefly under lord Igor as i heard it pronounced, I'll mention that the rus are in fact the Vikings. Tjey used to travel grom the Baltic sea to the Black Sea by means of portaging their ships between rivers. I've heard mentioned that the Vikings would be employed as mercenaries throughout middle east but i ain't verified it .
these illustrations are a blessing
Naval Spurs? How do they work? When I hear spurs I think of cowboy boots lol. (Make a video on medieval naval stuff?)
Thanks very interesting info 👌
it looks like a rocket backwards... the greeks were incredible
This wasn't the Greeks. It was the Romans. Safe to say it's a Roman creation, Roman Fire.
@@locomotivebearingdown5381 lol no it was Greeks
@@ΝΥΞ_Ω Romans, not Greeks. They literally were not Greeks because they were proudly calling themselves Romans, while steadfastly denying that they were Greeks.
@@locomotivebearingdown5381 Yes, but they were Romans politically, so they were Greeks.
@@locomotivebearingdown5381 They denying that because back then Greek or Hellene was equal to pagan.Also sorry for my bad english I'm trying.
Very intersting Story and excellent Video 👍🙂
Flamethrowers are an interesting weapon, theoretically they could've made really good ones way before this as well. A pressure vessel is basically just a sealed pot, bronze would be a suitable material and with vax you could cast some intricate parts as well, you could make relief and 1 way ball valves using a number of different materials, leather and grease could be used to make it pressure tight. A skilled metal worker could even have made a man portable one thousands of years ago. Fuel could be found in nature or you could make tar from wood, if you distill it down the same way gasoline is distilled today you could make it even more potent.
Sure guns could've been made way back as well if people had figured out gunpowder, but you need some high levels of skill or machines to make more then a single shot weapon so even with a gun you would be dead if you where severely outnumbered.
Super interesting !
Flamethrowers on boats, the meta when playing the Byzantines.
Köttbullar e fan gött
.
More so in Attila in total war
How prevalent has Total War series been that Rome is always depicted in red and the Byzantines depicted in purple
Byzantine power, baby! ☧ 🔥💪
Roman power.
The Arab navy defeated the Byzantines in every single naval battle
Awesome video! Thanks a lot! :D
Answering you question, I think the invention of stirrups was also very important for warfare.
and stirrups, with all their simplicity, came surprisingly late. For example, chainmail for centuries, but still no stirrups invented. That always blows my mind.
i couldn’t imagine going up against a napalm equivalent weapon in the middle ages id run too
"oh looky, their ships have dragon ornamentation... Ahhh"
and then... aaah the dragons are aliveeeeeeee
Really cool stuff
Loved the video. It will be much appreciated if someone could guide me to a research on explosive pots, if it could be regarded to the Assyrian realief of 9th century BC would be best as I couldn`t find anything on that matter.
Keep up guys! History is sexy!
Great presentation thanks xxx
Very impressive , and well researched video. Thank you !
Now I see, where the makers of "Game of Thrones" got their idea of the fiery Dragons ;)
More like their inspiration for wildfire
Great channel, sir.
Hey invicta, just wanna wanna say that I like this series (units of history) so much and would like a video on the rashidun caliphate army (particularly the rashidun cavalry) to know how they beat two imperial empires and what tactics they used. Thanks.
👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌😘
This was epic! Thank you!
Had not heard of the Fire Ships before. Interesting.
Fun fact: the correct name is *Roman fire* known as *Rhomaicon Pyr.* This is the name by which it was known to the Romans. It was also called *Thalassinon Pyr* which means *Sea fire* and also "Hygron Pyr* which means "liquid fire". The term "Greek fire" was handed down into English from the Vatican, which called it "Ignis Graeca" in Latin.
Actual fact instead of a fun one, it was really called Sol Semen, because it was like the sun jizzing on barbarians.
I’m imagining this but with Wildfire from Game Of Thrones and let me tell you it is glorious.
Greek Fire is where dear GRRMartin got the idea for Wildfire in the Song of Ice and Fire books.
When I was a kid.....we used to experiment with our own concoctions, and try them out at my grampa's auto salvage. We came up with one concoction in a molotov cocktail that burned for 2-3 days.
A small overlooked important tool of mounted warfare was the Hunnic stirup, finally making horse stable weapons platform to strike or fire in all directions from all positions , the stirrup or the 3 pointed "anti cavilry mine" that always landed point up and were laid in key positions
I appreciate your work!
"What other military technologies do you think come close to matching its legacy?"
Napalm.
Great documentary, well done. What is the name of the classical music used in the being of the video?
Invicta uploading is at least something good happening on a Monday
Really interesting to actually know and understand more about these then just "and then the Greek Fire won the battle"
edit: I meant that this is interesting to know more then you learn in school kind of thing but it came out weird when you read it
No doubt even more influential was the Gatling gun, precursor to all of the terror in WWI
Something similar to Greek fire was used during the Vietnam conflict called napalm. It was a thick jelly like substance that had to be scraped off. Water had no effect.
So this is why byzantines got 25% faster firing fire ships and the unique tech "greek fire" which adds extra armor to their ships
So iconic GRRM can't help but add an equivalent in his novel LOL
Everybody: "Constantinople looks weak right no..."
Constantinople "NOOOOOOOOOO"
"Anyway...."
Good video 👍🏻 thanks
I wonder what would’ve happened to Europe if the Muslims were able to conquer Constantinople at this point of history if the Greek fire wasn’t available?
Well, they did conquer good parts of the roman remains in Spain, so that's a good indication. Once the central European forces were strong enough again, they were driven out again. Probably similar would have happened in the east, too.
That's the thing about invasions and conquests though, it's extremely difficult to impossible to completely supplant or assimilate the native population. It's just a numbers game in the end.
The fact that the Romans *were* able to do is why they are so revered today.
@@justmoritz Didn't the Turks pretty much did that? There's very little Greek presence left on Asia Minor. And then there's North Africa which is majority Arab now. Yes it's possible to supplant the previous inhabitants. You just need get rid of as many of the conquered initially and then convert and outbreed them whatever remained. Some would even argue it's happening in Europe now, without a shot being fired.
If Greek fire disappeared completely before the 4th crusade what was that crusader’s account from?
Greek fire is a mystery. Who knows when and in what condition it could be used. This secret died with the empire.
I wonder if there have been variants which used the ballistas or catapults of the ships as well.
There's actually a tech in AOE 2 for the Byzantines called Greek fire so I guess it's semi historically accurate
The ship was called Dromon.
God damn... why can't Hollywood make a movie about this this is one of the craziest stories I've heard about ancient times I would pay to watch this.
I bet this greek fire was inspiration for the "Wild fire " in Game of Thrones
It is. That chapter even included it's own version of the Golden Chain.
Imagine the young Arab naval men growing up thinking the dragons were silly myths told by old men.....only to witness them not only show up, but decimate thousands right in front of you. The psychological impact of legend coming true must have been almost unimaginably terrifying for them in those first few moments.
fortunate son starts playing in Middle Greek.
I love the smell of naptha in the morning
Wow, that was a roller-coaster of a video!
Better than any fiction - makes the GoT fireship episode look tame.
Especially when their fleet was otherwise engaged, so they got some old tubs due for the scrap yard, fixed them up, armed them to the teeth, and filled them full of their ablest veterans. Then sent those plucky underdogs to face far superior numbers.
That's a blockbuster movie right there!
ah yeah according to our school books in greece this fire weapon could even fire when it was in water ,incredible
ours in italy too, they even give the ingredients: sulphur, resin, etc...
well, oil floats on top of water so... not strange
Perhaps the one time in history when at the gate of collapse the promised wunderwaffe _actually worked._
It is amazing how much history the Romans have.
thinking about a medieval flamethrower just makes me smile,
Also seems very scary having that thing on your wooden ship xD
The term “Byzantine Empire” is a bit of a misnomer. The Byzantines understood their empire to be a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire and referred to themselves as “Romans.” The use of the term “Byzantine” only became widespread in Europe after Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.
Much later, actually: it is the term developed by German 19th century scholars. In the 11th C onwards Western European powers would often call it "The Greek Empire" or just "The Emperor in Constantinople" or "The Greeks."
@@kristiangustafson4130 It was an illusion, of course. One of the most common mistakes made in history. For example, Europeans called Egyptians and Sudanese Arabs. This is of course not true. They saw themselves as Romans, and that's what matters. Also, the Roman Empire was a single state. Being influenced by the Hellenes does not make them a Hellenic state. If you see the late Roman Empire as a Greek state, then you should also see the Tungusic and Mongolic states the Yuan and Qing as a Sinitic states, a mistake no one who can use even a quarter of their brain will make.
@@papazataklaattiranimam
From Doukas Vatatzes. The emperor himself:
"So you write in your letter that in our race(genos) of the Greeks(ton Hellenon) wisdoms reigns…that from our race(genos) wisdom flourished and its benefits were spread and to the other people, that’s true . But how it happens to ignore, or if you don’t ignore ,how did you suppress it, that along with the royal(vasilevousa) Konstantinoupolis and the kingship in this world was given to our race from Konstantinos the Great, who accepted the call from Christos and ruled with decency and honesty. Is there anyone who doesn’t know that his succession(Konstantinos’) passed to our race(genos) and we are his heirs and inheritors?
You demand from us not to ignore your privileges. And we, too , have the similar request from you to see and recognize our right to rule the state of Constantinoupolis, that started from the age of Constantinos the Great and lasted one thousand years until it reached our reign. The patriarchs(genarches) of my kingship, from the families of Doukas and Komnenos, not to mention the others, come from the Greek race(apo hellenika geni). So these fellow countrymen for many centuries had Constantinoupolis in their authority. And them the Church of Rome and their principals called Emperors of the Romans(Autokratores Romaion). So we declare to your holiness and to all Christians that never shall we stop fighting and struggle against the conquerors of Constantinoupolis. It was like we disrespect the laws of nature, and the institutions of our fatherland, and the graves of our fathers and the holy temples of God, if we didn’t fight with all our power. We have with us the righteous God, who helps those who are wronged and oppose to the wrongful…”
@@gilpaubelid3780 Vakatzes dynasty was of Hellenic origin just like Komnenos dynasty that’s why lmao
@@papazataklaattiranimam And those two weren't the only ones. That's why Vatatzes isn't talking only about his own dynasty but about the other dynasties and his race as a whole as well:
"along with the royal(vasilevousa) Konstantinoupolis and the kingship in this world was given to our race from Konstantinos the Great"
"Is there anyone who doesn’t know that his succession(Konstantinos’) passed to our race(genos) and we are his heirs and inheritors?"
"recognize our right to rule the state of Constantinoupolis, that started from the age of Constantinos the Great and lasted one thousand years until it reached our reign. The patriarchs(genarches) of my kingship, from the families of Doukas and Komnenos, not to mention the others, come from the Greek race(apo hellenika geni). So these fellow countrymen for many centuries had Constantinoupolis in their authority. And them the Church of Rome and their principals called Emperors of the Romans(Autokratores Romaion)."
GReat work thank yoU
Υγρό πύρ (liquid fire)
Greek fire was probably something akin to napalm. It can be made with orange juice concentrate, accelerant and a few other ingredients. Wouldn't be hard for them to figure out.
I think the Macedonian pike was probably an equal for a military equivalent. It was quite pivotal.