13 “Magical” biological and chemical weaponry was devised by “harnessing natural forces” in ancient India: Kokatnur 1948, 270. In modern times, the scientists who develop biological and chemical weapons usually work in secrecy, and their names are rarely publicized.
14 Polyaenus, Stratagems 8.43. See Faraone 1992, 99, sighting Burkert 1972, 59-65, 73-75, on “aggressive use of pharmaka in war.” Faraone and Burkert both relate the Chrysame story to the ancient Hittite practice of sending poisoned or contagious animals toward the enemy. On modern strategies of poisoning enemy livestock in World War I, see Christopher et al. 1997, 413; Robertson and Robertson 1995, 370.
15 Quotes from Susan Levine, Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) research director, in Navy News and Undersea Technology, May 10, 1999; Col. George Fenton, director of JNLWD, in New Scientist, December 16, 2000; New York Times editorial, October 30, 2002, respectively. Ancient Indian recipes for calmatives and disorienting agents were delivered by hollow darts: Kokatnur 1948, 269.
16 Information on modern calmative and other nonlethal weapons: Sunshine Project, www.sunshine-project.org; and the Federation of American Scientists position papers and links at www.fas.org/bwc/nonlethal.htm; see also “When Killing Just Won’t Do” 2003; Broad 2002. The JNLWD has a Web site: www.jnlwd.usmc.mil. Hallucinogen BZ records were declassified in October 2002: “Some Soldiers in Chemical Tests Not Fully Informed” 2002. Hitler: Moon 2000, 95 (thanks to Flora Davis). Polyaenus 7.6.4 recounts an ancient tactic by the Persians to “feminize” their enemies, the Lydians.
17 The gas used by the Russians in 2002 was identified as an aerosol version of the anaesthetic Fentanyl. After that event, a spokesman for the JNLWD “denied that it was conducting research on nonlethal chemical weapons,” despite the JNLWD’s publicized 2002 budget of $1.6 million to develop such weapons: New York Times, October 28-31 and Broad 2002. Eumenes quoted by Justin 14.1.12, cited in Penzer 1952, 6. On Hannibal’s plan to catapult snakes, see chapter 6.
Chapter 6
1 Herodotus 2.141. The Egyptian god Ptah was recognized in Greece as Hephaestus, god of invention and fire. Bad omens of mice eating leather military gear: Pliny 8.221-23. Faraone 1992, 42-43, 65-66, 128-31. 2 Kings 19.35. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 10.15-27. Bradford 2001, 44. Zinsser 1963, 194, believes that the rodents that attacked the Assyrians were rats rather than field mice. The pestilence that struck the Assyrians was the subject of a famous poem by Lord Byron, “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” 1815.
2 When “mice” are mentioned in ancient texts, “rats” may be meant: Zinsser 1963, 190-91; and see his chapter 11 on rats and mice. Apollo’s cult of pestilential mice and the temple of Hamaxitus with white mice: Aelian, On Animals 12.5; Polemon of Troy (190 BC) fragment, cited in Faraone 1992, 128. Faraone, 41-42 (“faulty reasoning”) “hemorrhoids” theory, 50 note 39, 128-31. Strabo 13.1.46-48; 3.4.18. 1 Samuel 5-6. Commentary in the Oxford Annotated Bible identifies the Philistine pestilence as bubonic plague. The plague appeared in each Philistine town visited by the Ark, raising the question of fomites or insect vectors associated with the sacred chest: see chapter 4. Rats in “countless hordes” were a periodic plague in northern Iran and Babylon: Aelian, On Animals 17.17.
3 Neufeld 1980, 30-31. Ambrose 1974, 33-34. Aelian, On Animals 17.35. “Some authorities state that 27 hornet stings will kill a human being,” wrote Pliny 11.73. Maya: Popul Vuh, lines 6800ff. Mayor 1995a, 36.
4 Neufeld 1980, 30-39, 43-46, 55. Exodus 23.28, Deuteronomy 7.20, Joshua 24.12, Isaiah 7.18-20. On the many species of venomous insects in the Near East, see Neufeld 51-52.
5 Ambrose 1974. Development of weapons based on marking enemies with pheromones to induce attack by bees: “When Killing Just Won’t Do” 2003.
6 Neufeld 1980, 54-56. Harris and Paxman 1982, 49-50. Mayor 1995a, 36. Aeneas the Tactician 37.4; Appian, “Mithridatic Wars” 12.78.
7 Japanese flea bombs: Lesho 1998, 513; Christopher et al. 1997, 413; Robertson and Robertson 1995, 371; Lockwood 1987, 77. Kahn 2002.
8 The defense of Hatra: Herodian 3.9.3-8 and commentary by C. Whittaker. The Hatra debacle is also described by Dio Cassius 68.31-75.10.31.2, Epitome 75.10-13 and 76.10-12. Ammianus Marcellinus 25.8.2-6 visited the abandoned city of Hatra in AD 363, and described the desert as a “wretched” wilderness with no water and few plants. Scorpions: Pliny 11.87-91; 27.6. Aelian On Animals 6.20, 6.23, 8.13, 9.4, 9.27, 10.23, 15.26, 17.40 (a plague of scorpions in the Mideast). Strabo 15.1.37. Leo, Tactica 19.53, cited in Partington 1999, 18 and note 174. Scorpions in antiquity, see Scarborough 1979, 9-18; on winged scorpions, 14-15 and notes 146, 147, and 170. Assassin bugs: Ambrose 1974, 36. Thanks to entomologist Robert Peterson for information about assassin bugs. See Campbell 1986, “What Happened at Hatra?” for scholarly opinions on the puzzle of Severus’s defeat.
9 Assassin or cone-nose bug in Vietnam: Ambrose 1974, 38. On the history of U.S. research and production of offensive insect weapons see Lockwood 1987, 78-82. The “Controlled Biological Systems” project to create sophisticated weapon technologies based on entomology and zoology is overseen by the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA): www.darpa.mil/dso. Remote-controlled rats were created by SUNY scientists funded by the Defense Department. New York Times Magazine, December 15, 2002, 116; and Meek 2002, citing Nature, May 2, 2002. Revkin 2002.
10 Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal 23.10-11; see also Justinius 32.4.6-8; Orosius 4.20; and Frontinus, Stratagems 4.7.10-11 who says the trick was played by Hannibal and again by Prusius, King of Bithynia. Neufeld 1980, 54-55.
11 Greek Alexander Romance, Stoneman 1991, 101. Polyaenus 15.6, 7.9.
12 Aeneas the Tactician 22.14, 22.20, 23.2, 38.2-3; and Whitehead’s commentary pp 156-57. Aelian, On Animals 7.38. Pliny 8.142-43. Polyaenus 7.2. Ambrose 1974, 33. Dolphins: PBS Frontline Report, “A Whale of a Business,” 1997. Sea lions: Williams 2003.
13 On elephants in antiquity: Scullard 1974. Livy 27.46-49; Ammianus Marcellinus 25.1.4. At Alexander’s defeat of King Darius in 331 BC at Gaugamela, there were fifteen war elephants in the Persian forces. Alexander versus Porus: Quintus Curtius 8.13-14. Zonarus 8.3. Stoneman 1991, 129-30. Caesar’s elephant: Polyaenus 8.23.5. Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe 5.1298-1349. Aelian, On Animals 8.15; 8.17. Pliny 8.68.
14 Herodotus 1.80-82; 4.130-36. Polyaenus 7.6.6; Frontinus Stratagems 2.4.12. Aelian, On Animals 11.36 (he confused Lydians with Persians). Polyaenus 4.21. Zoological tricks help clarify the difference between acceptable biologically based ruses of war, like creating shields against enemy cavalry with ranks of evil-smelling camels, and more reprehensible deployments of bio-toxins against human soldiers. The imaginative range of ancient low-tech animal strategies make one wonder what sorts of counterploys will be developed to subvert the high-technology biodefenses using insects and animals being created today.
15 Aelian, On Animals 1.38; 16.14; 16.36. Alexander legend: Stoneman 1994, 11-12. Pliny 8.27 notes that elephants are scared by pigs’ squeals, and when elephants are frightened or wounded they always give ground. Tacitus, Germania 3. Ancient Indian methods of producing disorienting aural and optical effects: Kokatnur 1948, 269. Modern aural, optical illusion, and odor weapons: Sunshine Project; and “When Killing Just Won’t Do” 2003.
16 On flammable pitch and resin from trees and tar from crude petroleum deposits in the ancient world, see references cited in Whitehead’s commentary at Aeneas the Tactician 11.3, p 129; and Forbes 1964. Procopius, History of the Wars 8.14.30-43.
17 Frontinus, Stratagems 2.4.17. Partington 1999, 46, 210. Kautilya 1951, 433-34. Morgan 1990, chapter 2. Monkeys: reported in the Washington Times (UPI), March 24, and the World Tribune, April 8, 2003, citing Al Usbua Al Sisyassi magazine, Rabat, Morocco. Jennison 1971, 38. Folklore motifs for burning animals: J2101.1; K2351.1 in the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. The Tamerlane (Timur) legend comes from the University of Calgary Applied History Research Group, “Islamic World to 1600,” copyrig
ht 1998.
Chapter 7
1 Medea’s deadly gift to Glauke was described in Euripides’ tragedy Medea (431 BC): the burning scene (1136ff) takes place offstage but is vividly described by horrified eyewitnesses. The story of Medea’s fire weapon was retold in numerous versions by Greek and Latin authors, see for example Diodorus of Sicily 4.54; Apollodorus, Library 1.9.28. The princess in the burning gown was a favorite subject in vase paintings and sculpture. The fountain where Glauke sought relief was a landmark in antiquity and is still pointed out to tourists in ancient Corinth. Mayor 1997b.
2 Crosby 2002, 87-88. Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe 5.1243-46; and 5.1284-86. Partington 1999, 1, and 211 (Laws of Manu). SIPRI, Incendiary Weapons 1975, 15. According to Kokatnur 1948, 268-70, “chemical warfare or something similar thereto is strongly suggested” in the oral Indian epics of 2000-650 BC, written down in about the first century AD. Sun Tzu: Bradford 2001, 134-36. Temple 1991, 215-18.
3 Herodotus 8.51-53. Crosby 2002, 88. On early methods of distilling wood pitch, discussed by Pliny, Dioscorides, and Arabic sources, Forbes 1964, 33-36, 38-39; Partington 1999, 4; on the last uses of blazing arrows, 5.
4 Crosby 2002, 88. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.75-78. Sulphur and pitch: Healy 1999, 248-49, 257; Pliny 35.174-77; 16.52. On sulphur fires in sieges in Roman times, see Healy, 249 notes 228-29, citing Martial, Epigrams 1.41.4 and 42; 12.57.14. Aeneas the Tactician 33.1-3; 35.1. Rhodes: Diodorus of Sicily 20.48, 86-88, 96-97. Tacitus, Histories 4.23. Silius Italicus, Punica 1.345-67 (Hannibal). Vegetius 4.1-8, 18. Herodian 8.4. Ammianus Marcellinus 23.4, 14-15. See Partington 1999, 2-3. On petroleum weapons in antiquity, see Forbes 1964, chapter 7.
5 See Temple 1991, 217-18, 224-29, 232-37, 241-48, for Chinese discoveries and military uses of saltpeter and gunpowder. On the experimental weapons leading to the development of gunpowder guns and bombs in China and India, see Crosby 2002, 93-129; quotes on 98. James Riddick Partington 1999 is the authority on the early discoveries and formulas for Greek Fire and gunpowder. His work, originally published in 1960, is updated in the Introduction to the 1999 edition, see esp. xxi-xxiii. Poisons added to Chinese incendiaries: Partington 270-71; Temple 216-18. Indian fire projectiles: Kokatnur 1948, 269.
6 Lucan, Civil War 3.680-96; 10.486-505. Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.53. Frontinus, Stratagems 4.7.9. and 14. Arrian, Alexander 2.19. Quintus Curtius 4.2.23-4.3.7. Partington 1999, 1.
7 Diodorus of Sicily 17.44-45. Quintus Curtius 4.3.25-26. SIPRI, Incendiary Weapons 1975, 150-51.
8 Dio Cassius, fragments of book 15 preserved by John Zonaras, Epitome 9.4; and John Tzetses, Book of Histories 2.109-28. Plutarch, Marcellus. Partington 1999, 5 and note 56. Modern experiments with Archimedes’ invention: see Applied Optics special issue 1976. Capture or immunity for enemy scientists: After World War II, German nuclear scientist Wernher von Braun was given asylum in the United States, and Dr. Ishii of Japan was granted immunity in exchange for his records of bioweapons experiments. Poupard and Miller 1992, 16 (on the U.S. coverup of Japan’s bio-weapons). In 2002, the U.S. government suggested a plan to “identify key Iraqi weapons scientists and spirit them out of the country” in exchange for information about Saddam Hussein’s biochemical arsenals. New York Times, December 6, 2002.
9 Laser guns were allegedly used during the U.S. military’s Operation Just Cause according to “Panama Deception,” the Academy Award- winning documentary film directed by Barbara Trent, 1992. Colonel Fenton described the microwave gun on NPR, Morning Edition, March 2, 2001, “New Crowd-Control Weapon that the Pentagon Is Developing.”
10 Catapults: Crosby 2002, 81-87; Oxford Classical Dictionary, s.v. “artillery.” Spartan flame-hrower: Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.100; Crosby 2002, 89. On Chinese flamethrowers, see Temple 1991, 229-31. On modern flamethrowers, SIPRI, Incendiary Weapons 1975, 106-11.
11 Apollodorus, Poliorcetica cited by Partington 1999, 2, and see 199 for later medieval recipes for burning stone castles combining vinegar, sulphur, naphtha, and the urine of children (urine contains combustible phosphates). Pliny 23.57; 33.71 and 94. Livy 21.37, and skeptical commentary by the translator B. O. Foster. Juvenal 10.153. Dio Cassius 36.18 reported that vinegar poured repeatedly to saturate a large brick tower weakened it and made it brittle enough to shatter. Vitruvius 8.3.1 noted that fire and vinegar dissolved flint rock. Modern vinegar experiments: Healy 1999, 131-33.
12 Aeneas the Tactician 33-35, and Whitehead’s commentary pp. 197-98. Partington 1999, 5, 201. For fire-extinguishing methods in practice, see Diodorus of Sicily 13.85.5; 14.51.2-3; 14.108.4. Appian, “Mithridatic Wars” 12.74. Polyaneus 6.3.3; excerpts 56.3.6. The “powers of vinegar”: Pliny 23.54-57.
13 Aeneas the Tactician 37.3. China: Temple 1991, 215-17 (fumigants and poison gases for military use). Croddy 2002, 127, citing Joseph Needham’s encyclopedic Science and Civilisation in China. Croddy claims that Thucydides reported arsenic smoke used by the Spartans, but there is no mention of arsenic by Thucydides. Neufeld 1980, 38 and note 26. Creveld 1991, 25, on smoke in tunnels. Plutarch, Sertorius. Rahman 2002. Kautilya 1951, 434, 441-45, 457. Polybius 21.28.11-17. Polyaenus 5.10.4-5; 6.17. Partington 1999, 18 (quicklime dust); 149 (weasels and magnets); 171 and note 154 (Dura-Europos); 209-11 (Arthashastra); 263, 284-85 (poison smokes in China and the New World). Islamic smoke weapons: Hashmi forthcoming. Chemical smoke from burning sulphur or arsenic was used as pesticide in antiquity (against lice, mites, fleas, wasps, etc) by the Egyptians, Sumerians, and Chinese (2500-1200 BC), and burning sulphur and tar was used to repel insects in ancient Greece and Rome, according to Homer and Cato (thanks to Anne Neumann for the idea of looking into the history of pesticides). Ancient Chinese fumigation techniques led to military uses of poison gases: Temple 1991, 215.
14 See Forbes 1964, 96 on pyr automaton. On ancient knowledge of these chemicals, Bailey 1929-32, 1.111, 199, 209-10, 244-45; 2.121, 251-56, 272-77. See Mayor 1997b on combustible formulas in myth and history. Livy 39.13. Some date the recipe in the compilation attributed to Africanus to the sixth century AD. Partington 1999, 6-10. Seneca, Medea 817-34. See also Rose 1959, 204. 1 Kings 18.23-38. Pliny 2.235-36; 35.178-82; 36.174.
15 The Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, was taken in 1972 at Trang Bang, Vietnam. The full story is told in Chong 2000. Napalm (naphthene thickened with palmitate) canisters were ignited by superhot white phosphorus. On napalm’s invention and its various formulas and uses from World War II through the 1970s, see SIPRI, Incendiary Weapons 1975, 39-67, 91-97, 122-55 (effects of chemical burns); Perry 2001; Taylor 2001.
16 On geography of petroleum, see Partington 1999, 3-5. For classifications, definitions, and locations of bituminous petroleum surface deposits in the ancient world, see Forbes 1964, who also surveys ancient references to petroleum and archaeological evidence for its uses.
17 Forbes 1964, see 91 for Assyrian criminals punished with hot petroleum, and 29, 40-41 for oil deposits in India. Baba Gurgur: Bilkadi 1995, 25. Nehemiah: 2 Maccabees 1.19-30. Partington 1999, 6.
18 Herodotus 6.119. Ctesias quoted by Aelian, On Animals 5.3. Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 3.1.
19 Strabo 16.1.4 and 15 described fountains of burning naphtha and other forms of petroleum in Babylon, and Alexander’s experiment, which was also reported by Plutarch, Alexander 35. Forbes 1964, 23-28; Classical scholar David Sansone 1980 sees Plutarch’s narrative of the dangerous experiment with naphtha as an extended metaphorical commentary on Alexander’s “fiery temperament.” Incendiary missile at Gandhara from Taj Ali et al., “Fire from Heaven? Small Find no. 1513 and Southern Asia’s Oldest Incendiary Missile,” unpublished paper, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Peshawar, Pakistan, September1999. Arthashastra: Partington 1999, 209-11. Kautilya 1951, 434. Shukra’s Nitishastra also describes incendiary balls flung at foes in ancient India: Kokatnur 1948, 269.
20 Ammianus Marcellinus 23.6.15. Dio Cassius, Epitome 76.10-12. Naphth
a’s ability to combust air, burn in water, and pursue fleeing victims: Pliny 2.235-41.
21 On burn injuries and smoke inhalation from fire weapons, see SIPRI, Incendiary Weapons 1975, chapter 3, and 187-99.
22 Arab legends of Alexander’s inventions of incendiaries: Partington 1999, 47, 58, 198, 200-201; on petroleum weapons in India, 209-11. Illustration of the “Naphtha wall,” Shahnama, Iran, 1330s, Arthur Sackler Gallery, S1986, 104, Smithsonian, Washington DC.
23 Thaqif: Hashmi forthcoming. Bilkadi 1995, 23-27. Partington 1999, 189-227. Asbestos was known to Pliny 36.139: “Asbestos looks like alum and is completely fireproof.” Ancient Persians imported from India a “stone wool,” magic cloth cleansed by fire, used for magic tricks. Asbestos in war: Forbes 1964, 100; see also Partington 1999, 22, 201, 207 and Fig. 11 (burning riders in Islamic armies). Iraq: Miller and Vieth 2003. According to Crosby 2002, 91, the Mongols used trebuchets to hurl naphtha bombs.
24 Partington 1999, 24-25, 28-32, 45. Kautilya 1951, 434. Accidental explosions of Greek Fire mixtures: Forbes 1964, 96, citing Leo’s military handbook of the ninth century AD. Crosby 2002, 89, 96-97. SIPRI, Incendiary Weapons 1975, 91, 106-7. Mecca: Bilkadi 1995, and see Nardin 1996, 164-65 on the Koran’s ban on fighting near the Ka’aba, 2.191. Chinese warnings and naval disaster: Temple 1991, 228, 230; and see Croddy 2002, 130, quoting historian Shi Xubai, cited by Needham. In the thirteenth century AD, the Chinese defended against specially trained “naphtha troops” of the Mongol Hulagu Khan, Kublai Khan’s predecessor, by covering dwellings with roof mats of grass coated with clay.
25 Crosby 2002, 89-92, quote 92.
26 Petroleum weapons: Forbes 1964, 33-41, 99-100; Byzantine hand-syringes for squirting Greek Fire, 96 and figs. See Partington 1999, 21 and 26; 10-41, 44; for modern chemists’ reconstruction of Greek Fire, see Bert Hall’s Introduction, xxi-xxiii. See also Roland 1990, for a clear and concise history of Greek Fire; quotes 18; and see diagram on 19 for a reconstruction of the Greek Fire system. For the development of Muslim oil weapons, see Bilkadi 1995. On early medieval Muslim-Asian exchange of naphtha weapon knowledge, Croddy 2002, 128-30. According to Healy 1999, 121, Pliny anticipated the basis for process of modern fractional distillation, in Natural History 31.81. On the question of whether Pliny described saltpeter, see Healy 134, 198-99; and Partington 298-306. The first military use of gunpowder was linked (as the ignition source) to Greek Fire deployed by Chinese warships in about AD 900. Croddy 2002, 129, citing the Chinese Gunpowder Epic. The Byzantine historian Theophanes wrote that enemies “shivered in terror, recognizing how strong the liquid fire was.” Crosby 2002, 90. Forbes 1964, 98 for capitulation to Greek Fire: a Russian fleet of one thousand ships retreated from fifteen Byzantine ships carrying Greek Fire in AD 941.
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