Reconstructing the Lost Recipe of Greek Fire: Byzantine Warfare and Experimental Chemistry

Greek fire, the incendiary weapon famously used by the Byzantine navy from the 7th to 12th centuries, has long occupied a place between history and legend. Despite its historical importance in several major naval engagements, the exact composition and mechanism of Greek fire remain unknown and heavily debated. This project combines the textual analysis of Medieval texts, such as Theophanes' Chronographia and Anna Komnene's Alexiad, and experimental testing to investigate the historical plausibility of proposed Greek fire mixtures. Descriptions in the Medieval texts identify several defining characteristics, including a liquid fuel capable of burning on water, adhesion to surfaces, and the production of thick smoke and a loud discharge when projected from siphons. These reported properties provide constraints for testing historically plausible mixtures based on petroleum, pine resin, sulphur, and other materials available in the medieval Mediterranean. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is used to analyze experimental fuel mixtures and model the hydrocarbon composition of crude oil sources described in historical records. By examining the distribution of hydrocarbons in mixtures of petroleum ether and kerosene, the study approximates the chemical properties of ancient petroleum seeps available to the Byzantines. Experimental trials evaluate whether such compositions can reproduce the effects described in the sources. The results suggest that Greek fire was most likely a petroleum-based incendiary system whose effectiveness depended on both its chemical composition and its specialized delivery mechanisms.