Units of History - Byzantine Fire Ships - Ancient Superweapons DOCUMENTARY

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This animated documentary is part of our Units of History series covering elements of the Byzantine Army and more. In this episode we explore the Fire Ship super weapons which saved the Byzantine Empire.

The documentary begins with a look at the history of incendiary weapons. This stretches from the Assyrian Army to the Indian, Sassanid, Greek, and Roman forces as well. Specifically however we focus on the emergence of Naptha and Greek Fire. This technology came at a critical moment when the Byzantine Empire was being overrun by the Arab Conquests and would prove to be their savior.

In the equipment section we cover how the greek fire siphons were built and how they were mounted on Byzantine Dromons. We then turn to their tactical use in battle before covering their service history. This includes critical action during the numerous times when invaders tried to execute a siege of Constantinople. We cover the Arab Siege of Constantinople in the 8th century as well as the Kievan Rus attack on the city in the later 10th century.

In previous episodes we have covered the Byzantine Grenadiers, Varangian Guards, the Roman Cataphracts, and many more fascinating troop types. What Units of History should we cover next?

THE BYZANTINES

THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

THE ROMANS

THE NORTHMEN

THE AFRICANS

THE NEAR EAST

Credits
Research = Sophia Ware and Chris Das Neves
Script = Chris Das Neves
Narration = Guy Michaels
Editing = Penta Limited

Sources and Suggest Reading:
“Greek Fire” by Linda Alchin
“Byzantine authors: literary activities and preoccupations” by John Nesbitt
“Praecepta Militaria” by Nicephorus II Phocas
“Tactica” by Emperor Leo VI the Wise

#Units
#Byzantine
#Documentary
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It's honestly insane how long the Byzantines managed to hold on with all of their miraculous comebacks

a-drewg
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awesome video! would love to see early gunpowder weapons such as firelances, rocket arrows, and explosive grenades of the 11th century

HistoricalWeapons
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*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!!”* 🔥

youvebeengreeked
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Imagine being an Arab sailor on a jolly swashbuckling adventure then seeing Greek Fire upclose for the first time

Ventolin
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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.

pseudomonas
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You guys don't know how much you are giving to the history loving community. You guys are a treasure for growing YouTube 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

zorro
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The greek fire is probably the closest thing to fantasy in history

dawidwojacki
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With flamethrowers mounting on all sides of the galley, this literally made the Greek Fire ships ancient equivalent of WWII battleships

zhihaoge
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Greek fire is called Liquid fire in Greek which sounds pretty cool

skyfragmented
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Its a shame no great movie about the Romans of Byzantium exist.

stefanvella
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Only the best Naval Unit in M2TW until the discovery of gundpowder.

Nough said.

Cba
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In Greece we call this "Liquid Fire" (Υγρό πύρ)

kkyrezis
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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!

gaufrid
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Equivalent game changing tech would include field deployable cannons, nuclear bombs, the Caravel, the dreadnought, the steam engine, and the mińe ball.

kyleheins
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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.

valerimarkov
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"Θά 'ρθεις σαν αστραπή" - Lightning Strikes

vangelisskia
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Curious how these ships prevents friendly or self-fire

rezkyputra
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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.

brokenbridge
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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.

georgezachos
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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.

antman