Units of History - Byzantine Flamethrowers and Grenadiers DOCUMENTARY

[@InvictaHistory]

This video comes as a suggestion from one of our Patrons, who have excellent taste! What Units of History should we cover next?

[@ManiusCuriusDenatus]

Palatini or Comitatenses of the late Roman Army.

[@potatomasherr]

Top Tier

[@shadowkeep2949]

Very well done Bravo

[@user-evil_historian]

Armenian cavalry/Armenian archers Mamluks Jaguar warriors/Eagle Warriors Cossacks Janissary Ghilman Rajput Noker Gallowglass Genoese crossbowmen

[@Intranetusa]

Flamethrowers (eg. the double piston versions) and Grenadiers from the Song Dynasty.

[@ecurewitz]

Looks like the Byzantines really did have the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!

[@5ynth3ticNZ]

Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.

[@GetRidOfCivilAssetForfeiture]

1, 2, 5! 3, sir 3!

[@press8404]

noice.

[@walpolescrew]

‘Five is right out!’

[@GetRidOfCivilAssetForfeiture]

Thou shalt not count to two unless thou proceedeth to three. Thou shall not count or four …

[@MartyBones]

Just imagine going to battle and seeing a Byzantine soldier shooting fire out of a weird device. Terrifying, both back then and in the current era lol

[@marcus4046]

POV your a Rus mercanary and you see the greeks casting wierd magic. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJebZ5-Cm6qZY9E

[@mate5571]

*roman soldier

[@visegradi]

Emperor Calcius Maximus on his waay to burn the enemies of the empire

[@barbiquearea]

I would be even more terrified as a soldier on a ship that's engaging the Byzantine navy. At least on a battlefield you have options to run away. But on a floating vessel, if your ship catches fire, your only hopes of survival is jumping overboard and praying you don't drown.

[@marcus4046]

@@barbiquearea god forbid your already on fire......

[@patrykkulpok6908]

Imagine that someone is making a partially historical movie about Byzantium during a zombie epidemic (for example the Justinian plague) and soldiers use Greek fire and grenades during the fighting.

[@joeywheelerii9136]

That would be awesome. Let's give those Greekoids some shekels and make it happen. It could be like that Netflix show in 1600s Korea.

[@Feanor1169]

Someone did write a book about a zombie outbreak during the Arab Siege of 717-718. Never read it but I remember it from the History of Byzantium podcast.

[@weirdofromhalo]

Pretty sure World War Z touches on Romans using flamthrowers.

[@CHMichael]

Great idea. zombie stories need fresh scenarios. - let the Greek fight zombies - part of the Persian army ( 300 ) (Just one more example )

[@Dcdc425]

Dude! Phalanx wall vs rushing zombie scene 👌

[@OGDeepStroke]

People fail to realize; 39 years after the Romans were officially done; Columbus landed in the “New World”. Really puts events into perspective.

[@voievod9260]

Wow

[@anxietyplague2395]

Thanks

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

Black Crow, really?

[@gilpaubelid3780]

Byzantines were Greeks and hellenized populations with Roman citizenship. In other words, when we're saying that the Byzantines were Romans we mean that they were politically Romans. If by "Romans" you mean the ancient Romans, they weren't even part of the empire during the byzantine period.

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

@@gilpaubelid3780 you saying that if i didn't know about it, even if my id name has the name Konstantinopoli. I know all of that and more, do you even know that the Nicean Empire viewed itself as more Greek than Roman for example?

[@rostdreadnorramus4936]

I hope Invicta starts doing more videos about the Byzantines. Did a really good job with the video about the Varangian Guard, Byzantine Court and now this.

[@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ]

I think that it would help if we just started calling them Romans. "Byzantines" is a revisionist term of central European historians. Calling them Romans again as they called themselves would draw more attention to the surviving half of the Roman Empire that lasted until 1453 A.D.

[@chaosspork]

@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ I agree with this. I would much prefer if they called them Romans or Eastern Romans.

[@WelcomeToDERPLAND]

Man, its things like this and other ancient inventions far ahead of their time that make me wonder how much knowledge we've truly lost about the past- what other incredible inventions far exceeding their contemporary time period have we lost to the sands of time I wonder? Others that come to mind are the Antikythera device, Archimedes' Screw, that rudimentary steam engine (which wasnt used for anything I can recall) and the ancient greek crossbows. (lybos I think it was called?)

[@amiscellaneoushuman3516]

Archimedes screws are widely used in the modern day so I wouldn't call them lost, also the other 3 have all been successfully reconstructed (and in the case of the Antikythera device the original still exists)

[@WelcomeToDERPLAND]

@@amiscellaneoushuman3516 Well Lost in the sense that for a long period of time after they were made- that they were lost to history so to speak, sure we eventually created steam engines... a couple thousand years later- thats not what I meant. I meant that after these inventions first came about- they never caught on across the majority of civilization and were lost to time until rediscovered hundreds or thousands of years later.

[@benemuel3916]

@@WelcomeToDERPLAND The problem with the steam engines was that they were Charcoal powered and it would have been... Inefficent, compared to the later beam engines. It would have been an Atmospheric where the steam creation causes the piston to be pushed down which is really only good for removing water from mines, moving it into canals, and supplementing water wheels. And since they didn't have water wheel powered industry, the engine would not have been able to help, and evolve to replace that. They had the concept of it essentially, but none of the knowledge that would make it able to evolve into something that was actually useful and practical, since none of their mines went below the water table as well. And they didn't need to do so for ore where it was a risk, unlike the late 1700s.

[@WelcomeToDERPLAND]

@@benemuel3916 Of course, I never thought they were applied or used for anything, but its a shame such things were lost to history & time, imagine if they weren't just abandoned or forgotten about, and instead subsequent scholars and philosophers continued to try to innovate the idea until eventually creating something more analogous to more modern steam engines (or by industrial revolution standards anyways)- It would have catapulted the people of the era forward in technological capabilities, and have changed history forever in the process. I also recall ancient pots which scientists are still battled about which are claimed to be 'ancient batteries' since they contain an electric charge within them, and we still have absolutely no idea what they were ever used for, Its stuff like that which really gets my noggin' joggin and feeds my love for history.

[@georgethompson1460]

@@WelcomeToDERPLAND I don't think they had the metallurgy or maths to get useful steam engines.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

It’d be interesting what The Eastern Romans would do with firearms and what units they’d form had they survived.

[@joeywheelerii9136]

Yes I want a alternative history with 1700s byzantium with pre manzikert borders. That would be cool

[@amiscellaneoushuman3516]

the Byzantines did have firearms in their later years

[@beaglemusiclabs]

I recall that at the end in 1453, the Byzantines had some handheld firearms as well as small cannon.

[@gilpaubelid3780]

You know that Greeks have survived, right?

[@barbiquearea]

Imagine had the monks who smuggled silkworm eggs from China also brought back black powder and Justinian saw its potential as a devastating weapon.

[@freakrx2349]

I remember using Greek fire during a siege in Medieval II: total war Crusades campaign. That weapon is just brutal. Turning the enemy army’s own armor into an oven and cooking them alive….I can see why such a weapon hasn’t been recreated since.

[@terrenusvitae]

Interstingly (or not) the greek armour 'Klivanion' actually means oven. Apparently you didnt always need the help of greek fire to roast in them.

[@amiscellaneoushuman3516]

one word, napalm

[@georgethompson1460]

The arabs recreated greek fire and deployed it against crusaders in the 5th and 6th crusades.

[@thplatoon-pg8vi]

Napalm.

[@Propulus]

The Vietnamese would like a word.

[@jjhh320]

If they ever do a movie that has the Byzantines at war, I fully expect to see the "flamethrower guy in a war movie" trope, complete with his inevitable fate and that of the guys next to him.

[@michaelweston409]

Done right this would be amazing.

[@kirbyis4ever]

An establishing shot of him firing from around a corner, unseen, while some poor bastards run around on fire. Followed by a full shot to show: Hey its an ancient flamethrower! A bit of flamethrower use to show off, and then he explodes through some clever means.

[@RexoryByzaboo]

Yeah, I hope there will be better Eastern Roman portrayals than the average Ramadan TV show.

[@tha_MVPLAYA]

As a former byzantine paratrooper i can confirm this is true Damn that's a ton of likes

[@visegradi]

As a former Byzantine general i can indeed confirm you were a Paratrooper of the 172nd Imperial Paratrooper Legion and have been in battles that indeed have seen the use of the flamethrowers as well as experimental machine guns

[@Baddy187]

@@visegradi I am a representative of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. I would like to have a talk with you, general.

[@mimodesu7689]

As a Former Empire 404th Imperial Cannon Legion gunner i can say for certain flamethrowers is very effective on scaring the enemy.

[@miquelr2353]

Paratrooper are an airunit no?

[@dinos9607]

@@miquelr2353 Yes. The ones who jump from a plane. He was just being sarcastic.

[@rosswebster7877]

I was always hoping to see the Byzantine flamethrower make an appearance on the Vikings TV series.

[@jozzieokes3422]

Next season perhaps

[@Dimi_kozy]

As a Greek Im Proud that this was a part of our history Greek Fire Go BRRRRRRRRRR🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@drinkwater559]

Love learning about Basil and his Byzantine burny bois

[@rileyernst9086]

"I love the smell of naphtha in the morning. It smells... like victory." Some Byzantine soldier.

[@belialord]

First the new Obi-Wan trailer and now this, I can almost hear Anakin screaming from the flames 🔥

[@tyranitararmaldo]

"I HATE YOU!"

[@dickrichard5579]

It’s over Byzantine! I have the high ground ! (Throws grenade)

[@belialord]

@@dickrichard5579 😂

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@dickrichard5579 I imagine him saying that perched on the Theodosian wall.

[@d1a9m9i1lare]

I think we (modern humans) should stem our disbelief in the ability of our ancestors or ancients creating magnificent technology for war. If Egyptians could create the pyramids for the sake of honoring their dead then anything could have been possible. After all there weren't that many distractions like we have today

[@slipstreamxr3763]

Also, Stonehenge in Britain is now thought by scholars to be an ancient multipurpose event center. It was used many different rituals by neolithic British people, but it's most important use was apparently as a funerary center.

[@firestorm1088]

The oldest form of hubris is the belief that the time you are living in is better than any previous period.

[@rursus8354]

Everything then were closely kept secrets, and then this kind of knowledge was essentially lost when the Byzantine Empire ceased to exist. Today we are high-technological not because we know how to do advanced stuff, but because we have paid scientists whose main task is to produce and publish research reports that anyone can read.

[@tombkings6279]

Then we should vote for Dictator ships if we want to achieve the the impossible.

[@painxsavior7723]

@@slipstreamxr3763 are you really comparing Britain stonehenge with the pyramids?

[@johnlumsden9102]

I love the way the writing of this channel builds a fantastical image that is to be expected when talking about these things then pulls you back to the reality of what may have actually been.

[@jeremy1860]

It's moments like this that always get me to wonder how history might have gone if the Byzantines had managed to hold on until the present day 😊

[@michaelweston409]

It's a miracle they hung on for that long. Think about this. When the Genoan Republic lost its territories in Greece along with the Arabs successfully conquering Constantinople ,all global trade between Europe & Asia in 1476 was severed. It only took 18 years until a bold young up start like Christopher Colombus came along to say screw this & found his own way to trade with Asia, crossing the vast Atlantic Ocean. Changing history as we know it.

[@AverageUsernames]

They would reached the future era lol

[@Miodrag.Vukomanovic]

@@AverageUsernames Hey we gave you Nikola Tesla !

[@Basil-HD]

It would be something like modern Greece but with the economy of France and the named would pe republic of Rhomania.

[@theelysian1172]

Byzantine grenades, fire ships, Baghdad batteries... the ancient world was way more advanced than we think... absolutely fascinating

[@thunderchild8548]

No matter how crazy the idea seems to us we have to remember that the peoples of the past or just like nature they don't have the most perfect version of something but it works and that's enough and seeing the flamethrower would be a close-range weapon back then if you got half of the range of a spear you're doing pretty good

[@PyrusFlameborn]

Your spear might be twice as long as the flamethrower's range but are you going within half a spear-length of a guy shooting fire at you?

[@michaelweston409]

Exactly so we have to assume the people of the time used the same brain as we have to solve the age old challenge of fire based weapons.

[@augustuslunasol10thapostle]

@@michaelweston409 I mean the Byzantines literally had guns only the uninformed would be in disbelief

[@vitorpereira9515]

If not for the stupid Byzantine intrigue, they would have reconquered the Mediterranean. They were their worst enemy.

[@Jg-jg6jb]

You could say the same about Rome as a whole. they were more busy fighting themselves than the real enemy.

[@vitorpereira9515]

@@Jg-jg6jb You said it.

[@Vasilefs_Terranorum]

Endless civil wars is a Roman tradition after all.

[@morgan97475]

I'm aware of Greek Fire being used aboard Roman (Byzantine) ships. But I was unaware that they had a hand-held device to employ the Fire. Very cool!

[@michaelg.1786]

Regardless, the Invicta flamethrower unit animation is all the proof I need on just how bad ass this weapon COULD have been!

[@MrJakobMovies]

I knew about byzantine/greek fire before but hearing more about it is blowing my mind, its so interesting.

[@trolldrool]

The records make it sound like the grenades and flamethrowers weren't implemented for their damage potential, but their demoralizing effect. In contrast to how modern movies and games often portray them as capable of burning dozens of soldiers in seconds. At least in the records shown in this video, it seems their main destructive purpose was against wooden constructs like siege towers approaching the city walls.

[@1810jeff]

To be fair a flamethrower can very easily burn dozens of soldiers just for the fact that it's pretty hard to fight back when you're engulfed in fire. So if you have a group of soldiers together some guy with a flamethrower could easily incapacitate all of them if he got the jump on them.

[@imoutofideas8515]

I think most would run by seeing one instead of standing in close formation against a firespewing madman. If close you would be oven potato and if you spread out or fled the charge would have been ineffective

[@nenenindonu]

The 2nd Umayyad siege of Constantinople was a campaign in which Greek Fire played a decisive role besides the Bulgar reinforcement 🔥

[@shadowkeep2949]

What a great video, I had never heard of flame weapons like this in ancient times that weren’t fiction

[@barbiquearea]

Gives me Battle of Blackwater Bay flashbacks.

[@glitterboy2098]

the interesting bit is that the basic technology of the naptha bomb and thrower lasted through the middle ages, with the byzantines containing to use them in small numbers, and the Arab Empires adopted their own versions during their conflicts with the byzantines. with some references to them in use even in the later crusades, though always in fairly small numbers. they seem to have died out as early gunpowder weaponry made its way into western armies.

[@sergioacevedo2254]

These are medieval times, by the way.

[@AkkaAlbatros]

@@barbiquearea that battle an empitation of the sieges of constantinople from the arabs. the byzantine fleet used liquid fire and burned the arab fleets every time.

[@drewinsur7321]

on medieval 2 total war with the stainless steel mod, i loved to just have a big line of cheap spearmen, lock the enemy in combat, go around and toast the shit out of everybody friendly or foe lmao. good to know more about the history of the firethrowers and greek fire.

[@barbiquearea]

That is basically the strategy I use when playing as Skaven. Throw a bunch of clanrats into the meatgrinder to keep the enemy busy, then have my warp flamethrowers to burn them all.

[@Tom-fv9jf]

@@barbiquearea Eww, warhammer..

[@comradekenobi6908]

@@Tom-fv9jf haram

[@ronkledonkanusmoncher564]

@@Tom-fv9jf more like yesses, Warhammerses….

[@Tom-fv9jf]

@@ronkledonkanusmoncher564 Toddler..

[@BenAC75]

Please keep doing videos on the Byzantine Empire. Your videos have rejuvenated my interest in the Byzantine Empire.

[@EmporerAaron]

The moment I saw the title I instantly thought of the units in Assassins Creed: Revelations.

[@TheManCaveYTChannel]

Love these eastern Roman videos! Keep it up! The most overlooked portion of Roman history!

[@user-sc5iv2rp2t]

Anna Komnena and Choniates use Byzantion to describe both the empire and the city (as the old Romans did with Rome), Roman emperor to describe the emperor and interchangeably Greek or Roman to describe the inhabitants(they preferred the Roman when speaking politically and Greek when talking with a cultural color) . No Eastern Rome in any source.

[@klol3369]

@@user-sc5iv2rp2t 1st the empire wasn't solely composed of Greeks until later in it's history after losing most it's territory, so most of byzantine history isn't Greek, even the pinnacle of it's history the primary official language was Latin with a native Latin speaking emperor, Justinian, ruling over an empire full of Latin speaking Romans from southern Spain to Illyria, also it wasn't Greeks ruling over other people's either as many emperor's weren't even greek, they called their language romaic and called themselves rhomios and not Greek(hellenes) because Greek meant pagan, and rhomios wasn't synonymous with Greek either as it was attributed to all citizens too. Also byzantine is unhistorical because Constantinople or nova Roma as it was called when it was founded is a different city to Byzantium, founded on the same spot as Byzantium but by that time Byzantium didn't exist because the Romans destroyed it for siding on the wrong side of a civil war, If Russians destroy Paris and build new Moscow on the ashes you wouldn't call it Paris. On another note east Roman is completely fine, they actually called themselves rhomios and their land rhomania, however we use English and Romans is the translation, however their empire was indeed the eastern part of the empire when it was split and the east and west were governed by different emperor's.

[@nihil_hd1598]

@@user-sc5iv2rp2t u talk shit.they called themself east Romans and the wort Byzantine was used after the fall of Byzantion

[@m.a.i7324]

@@klol3369 lol byzantines were greeks not latin. although they were romanized but roman culture itself come from greeks culture the etruscans. Both roman and byzatines practices different branch of christianity. Roman ( roman catholic), Byzantines ( eastern orthodox).

[@ajax1475]

@@m.a.i7324 There is no such thing as Byzantine, they were Roman

[@SkyFly19853]

Another wonderful episode!

[@BillyTzENDURO]

Awesome video! interesting fact, Cheirosiphona can be translated as "hand funnel"

[@ericcloud1023]

thank you for posting this awesome documentary here for absolutely free. your whole team deserves a medal

[@Mornathel]

For anyone more curious about fire arrows, Lindybeige did an extensive video on those.

[@Mr.PepeSilvia]

Great timing! I was just re-reading about the Maniakes rebellion and the Kievan Rus loss to Greek fire. Thanks 👍

[@jimboramba]

Flamethrowers undoubtedly one of the scariest weapons

[@Uzair_Of_Babylon465]

Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job

[@lonestarwolfentertainment7184]

Now I’m imagining these devices being used in Game Of Thrones but with Wildfire.

[@deirdregibbons5609]

The animations in this segment are amazing!

[@buffdude4281]

Thank you Invicta for enabling my addiction of Roman History. Your team and Kings and Generals are the best in the business!

[@bentilley747]

I have been waiting for Byzantine siphōn to be a topic for so long.

[@yohanneslong1970]

It shouldn't be surprising considering this is the same empire that previously employ very deadly Legionaries that able to fight from Britain to Persia.

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

I really loved it, the ingeniousity of Greco-Roman innovation. Unfortunately we know so few about it

[@Khofax]

From what I see I feel like that flamethrower contraption was probably more of a hose that just sprayed the unlit liquid next just throw a torch on the enemy and they get lit ablaze

[@marshallhewitt2749]

Glad to see this history opening up to the people. Thanks guys!

[@davidjarkeld2333]

12:22 There is a lot of debate if those vessels shown are infact granades at all. They have very thick walls, that are highly fired almost like stoneware and are very difficult if not almost impossible to break just by throwing them. later you get versions with decorative coloured glazed, which again is unlikely to be used on a single shot weapon.

[@Glenmoto12]

I need more of your videos! Love every single one of them.

[@ark2819]

wow I was just on the toilet reading about the Byzantine flamethrowers what great timing.

[@1917Albertso]

This channel is so awsome, love all your content !

[@dinsfire8489]

history is so frickin' amazing. who would've guessed flamethrowers were this ancient. utterly fascinating!

[@WE-WUZZING-KANGS-N-SHEEOYT]

The Roman imperial system created a ton of technology

[@luckyassassin1]

Greek fire, god i loved this unit in total war. Really sucks how they didn't really make byzantium strong in medieval 2 total war. Your endgame unit is the varangian guards, while everyone else gets gunpowder. They really designed byzantium to die off when in reality they were prey versatile and adaptable and innovative.

[@freedombro]

Western hatred of Eastern Rome explains all this , they are sad they couldn't maintain romes greatness

[@luckyassassin1]

@@freedombro yeah but if you read what constantinople was like, they did a damn fine job of maintaining some high level of greatness, but Turkish invasion drained them and they weren't able to stand alone forever

[@tylerellis9097]

@@freedombro Not really this is the same company that made the Eastern Roman Empire in Attila op. The older total war games just didn’t try to be historically accurate that much. Egypt in Rome total war is really bad lol

[@luckyassassin1]

@@tylerellis9097 don't even bring them up, the way they were portrayed was an insult at best.

[@-RONNIE]

Thanks for sharing the video with us 👍🏻

[@dprayogo00]

Brother, Get the flamer..., . . . . . THE HEAVY FLAMER

[@greg_4201]

'''The military interest in flamethrowers would be rekindled..'' ......I like what you did there

[@112steinway]

What's interesting is that after Hercules completes his Twelve Labors he saves a woman named Deianira from a centaur who is trying to assault her by killing the centaur with arrows that had been poisoned with Hydra venom. The centaur then tricks Deianira into thinking that if she coats Hercules' clothing with his spilled blood it will keep Hercules from loving another woman. In reality, the blood soaked garment burns Hercules so badly that he commits suicide and is taken up to Olympus to sit with the gods. I bring this up because it sounds remarkably similar to the account of coating arms and armor with burning chemicals mentioned above. Really makes you wonder how the Ancients thought of super weapons and their impact on humanity.

[@PALWolfOS]

It certainly kept Hercules from loving another woman - by killing him before his heart could falter

[@XxKINGatLIFExX]

The artwork here is absoultely brilliant. It is like a moving book watching these videos.

[@a1n9t8o9]

Jaguar/Eagle warriors as someone else suggested would be amazing.

[@truckwarrior5944]

Yes!

[@nunyabiznes33]

No movement penalty in jungles is great

[@husky0098]

When you're an Arab spearman chilling with your formation and see a Byzantine guy with a copper can coming towards you: oh no

[@stlouisix3]

Their war techniques were so advanced. No wonder they remained powerful for so long👍🏻👏🏻☝🏻🙌🏻👌🏻🤞🏻🤴🏻

[@Rena2869]

Amazing video! Thanks Invicta for cover this great Units! I hope that one day you could make a video of the English Houscarls, they were great against the Vikings and play the role of bodyguars and elite units to the English Kings.

[@RenegadeRanga]

Most ancient warfare is really interesting but this was epic.

[@oliverkent140]

Absolutely amazing analysis of the humanities and no doubt so much effort in each upload. You (creator) would pass classical studies with flying colors. There's so many opinions out there that would try to mix doubt into your videos but I can tell you've played ck2 and had historical learning. Just want to add some praise to you, if people on earth now In 2023 knew this kind of indepth look they could actually understand the face in reflection of mirror or glass and understand deeply why and how they are and add that extra "thing" every culture loves to do

[@RossHbn]

Now this will be an interesting topic!

[@The88Cheat]

I love the idea that flamer fluid needed to be made a particular time of day.

[@MrMimamoto]

As always a great video

[@Mrkabrat]

*Athenians refusing to abandon the wooden fort* "Acastus, get the flogovólo. The *heavy* flogovólo"

[@marvinm8343]

"Smell that? You smell that? Greek Fire, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of Greek Fire in the morning. You know, one time we had a citadel bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' Turk body. The smell, you know that naptha smell? The whole citadel. Smelled like... victory." -Strategos Billos Killgorios, Anatolian campaign, c. 1290

[@AkkaAlbatros]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_Philanthropenos you know it could be possible. especially with that guy. the texts fromt he era said the turkish slaves costed less than sheep. then the black plague depopulated the empire and the newly reconquered provinces

[@kaloarepo288]

Contemporary English classical composer John Taverner a few decades ago wrote a cello concerto piece labelled the "Protecting Veil" -the work is inspired by the Arab siege of Constantinople who the Byzantine defenders managed to defeat -the pious Byzantines ascribed this victory to the Virgin Mary who draped her protecting veil over the city and saved it.This would have been a metaphor for the protecting power of Greek fire when you think of it.Taverner's work was a best seller in Greece understandably!

[@Amen-Magi]

In the film, 300 Achaemenids also used incendiary grenades

[@WE-WUZZING-KANGS-N-SHEEOYT]

Indeed the akkadians were quite advanced

[@dennismayfield8846]

Magnificent! (And, verifies & justifies, many of my suppositions! Bravo!)

[@Dragons_Armory]

Incidentally the Chinese does as well during the Song dynasty. Would love a coverage of that as well haha

[@Crazyasian123456]

Don't forget about the rudimentary rocket battery,

[@barbiquearea]

Yep their flamethrowers were a bit more advanced, at least in terms of mechanism. Though they didn't come in gun size variations but were a platform based weapon that needs to be wheeled around.

[@Le-eu4bf]

@@barbiquearea imagine a flame chariot or a flame wagon

[@primalforlorn]

Too bad they were facing the mongol of all opponent. They would have survived till this day as a scientific, cultural and economical powerhouse otherwise.

[@meduseld6610]

@@primalforlorn Jog on Chinaboo, there is no way of knowing that. It takes much for than technological progress for an advancement in civilisation like we've seen in the modern day

[@LuizEduardo-md9jd]

dude, you're doing a great job in these videos; congrats from brazil

[@AfaqueAhmed_]

Military now :- Nah , the flamethrowers seem deadly and more harmful to use than to the enemy . Military then :- Haha fire go brrrrrr!

[@j.vinton4039]

“Stay thy hand fair prince” “Who said I’m fair…” “flamethrower blast”!!!

[@Stelios_The_Greek]

Imagine your the opponent fighting with normal shield and spear and suddenly you see someone with a freaking flamethrower 😂 nope Im not gonna fight that

[@michaelweston409]

This draws a line somewhere between fact & fiction & I love it. The mystery

[@yaboyed5779]

Finally, someone talking about this.👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 pls could you talk about the Greek fire ships next😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

[@InvictaHistory]

in the works

[@attila535]

"Let it burn!"- archers from Stronghold

[@johntheknight3062]

I think we drastically underestimate our ancestor. I guess after some 1000 years we will also be seen as there primitive tribes using their lame electronics and people will wonder how the hell we even built so much wonders withc such limited technology.

[@883tom]

Those who wish to learn more, much more, should read James R. Partington's History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, written over sixty years ago, it is still in print. Partington was a distinguished chemist and classicist.

[@morte2504]

Maximus, get the flamenus throwerus

[@sultanhamzah8974]

Did easytech use this model for their new unit? Awesome.

[@Psiros]

Thought that thumbnail was something from Warhammer 40K.

[@brucewindell5885]

Amazing video and information as you always present.

[@buffdude4281]

You should cover Empress Theodora’s life! Reference: The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora.

[@moiserares6974]

That's cannot be PG13 lmao

[@mr.wilson9941]

when i was younger i built a similar flamethrower in my moms garage. i strapped a can of lighter fuel to a mechanism to hold and "fire" it with a small flame at the end to ignite the fuel. It exploded

[@Stejers]

Can we have the episode of naval gladiatory combats soon?

[@InvictaHistory]

It's done already and should go live this weekend!

[@Stejers]

@@InvictaHistory yay!

[@historydocumentary]

Brilliant

[@stanisawzokiewski3308]

video starts here 5:26

[@masango3589]

Nice. Was looking forward to this one!

[@vangelisskia214]

"With the collapse of the empire in the west, its eastern counterpart became, in reality, an entirely new and independent state, at once Greek by language and Roman in name: 'A Greek Roman empire'." Roderick Beaton, "The Greeks: a global history", New York: Basic books 2021, pp. 212

[@tylerellis9097]

See this is what I mean lmao

[@vangelisskia214]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJjEo2mDhLN2gdU "Θά 'ρθεις σαν αστραπή" - "Lightning strikes"

[@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ]

@@tylerellis9097 What do you expect lol. He is a fanatic Greek nationalistt who cherry picks his sources to make it look like eastern Rome belongs to the Greeks.

[@jakubkolar1776]

Thank you very much for this series. I learned a lot of new and useful for me.

[@thatguythere8737]

If the Byzantine could have stopped killing each other maybe there could have survied.

[@rogelioalonzo2911]

Beautiful work !

[@dinos9607]

Sorry what? Callinicus was Syrian? At the time he was born, presumably in Heliopolis where he lived and worked, Syria was still part of the Eastern Roman Empire and boasted a population of more than a million ethnic Greeks - i.e. 1 in 10 was an ethnic Greek. People just forget about the massive emigration of Greeks from mainland Greece and western Minor Asian (and even South Italy to some extent) to Syria and Egypt where the big money were in the service of Seleucid and Ptolemaic Empires. Read the babylonian chronicle of the war between Seleucids and Ptolemeys - the very local Middle Easterners put themselves in the background and the mass of Greeks in the foreground battling against each other. Also, the fact that he had a Greek name at a time the Hellenistic fashion was waning in the Middle East is a strong indication of an ethnic Greek and not of a man with Syrian ancestry. He was not just a chemist but first and foremost an architect, a profession traditionally held by Greeks when even later Arabs used mostly Greek architects rather than any of their own Middle Eastern ones for their greater works. Not to mention the fact that the man could had made easier and better money selling his technology to the Arabs rather than going, literally as a refugee, to Constantinople and working there. If name and profession are not enough to classify him as Greek then even much more so living in Syria does not classify him as a local Syrian. People just forget how many millions of Greeks lived in Syria and Egypt at the time and are too quick to ascribe ethnic origins.

[@peterwall8191]

*Dinos* The want it forgotten. It pains them how few things, they actually invented themselves.

[@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ]

Callinicus was of Assyrian descent, though. Greek was spoken in the eastern parts of the Roman world. Even before that, since Alexander the Great. Anybody who wanted to advance his career would have to understand Greek or Latin. Callinikus was of Syrian descent, but spoke Greek. and yes, he was a Roman by nationality.

[@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ]

@@peterwall8191 Since he was a Syrian man who was a Roman national, he was not a Greek.

[@dinos9607]

@@ΡωμαϊκόνΠύρ I do not remember having seen an explicity mention of Callinicus being ethnicallly of "Assyrian descend". Only that he came from the province of Syria which was then overrun by Arabs. At the time Syria hosted a sizeable population of Greeks in excess of 1 million. Callinicus is of course a Greek name. On the basis of this information it is safer to bet on a Greek ancestry than on a Syrian. I keep seeing this effort of ascribing "ethnicity" on Eastern Roman citizens on the basis of the name of their regions which is woefully wrong. We talk of an era where millions of Greeks lived throughout the provinces of the Empire.

[@jasonz7788]

Awesome thanks for the great work Sir

[@TylerThomas]

I appreciate the artwork, but I want more real pictures too, also someone needs to port this into AEO2. make a fireship equivalent on land from the siege workshop. Super expensive but the burning buildings will make sense.

[@v-gc7257]

Interesting ! Eye opener.