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BIOLOGICAL & CHEMICAL WARFARE
in the ANCIENT WORLD
How deep are the roots of biological and unethical warfare ?
The origins of biochemical weapons are surprisingly ancient.
The idea of turning toxic forces of nature against enemies
goes back to archaic Greek myth and was put into practice
much earlier than has been previously recognized.
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Adrienne Mayor's "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs:
Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World"
(Overlook Press 2003) surveys the origins and practice of biochemical weapons from the Trojan War to the Roman Empire
REVIEWS:
"From myth to history, Hercules to Hannibal, battle-elephants to bubonic plague, Greek fire to napalm, here it is, told with brio, irony, and outrage--the story of man's genius for turning natural forces into weapons of mass destruction."
--Robert Fagles, translator of the Iliad
"If you thought, as I did, that biochemical warfare began with poison gas in WWI, we were about 3,000 years off. Mayor's book astonishes with her revelations about such warfare among the ancients. She proves again that the only thing new under the sun is the history we haven't read."
--Joseph Persico, Roosevelt's Secret War
"This ingenious, erudite, & sometimes sinister book conducts us into the heart of ancient darkness. A genuinely important, & timely, contribution to military history."
--Robert Cowley, editor of MHQ and What If?
"Mayor offers a fascinating look at the unorthodox and scary ways in which ancient armies sought to poison, burn, and infect their enemies. Her book is a model of how to make the ancient world come alive to remind us that our own paradoxes, dilemmas, and pathologies are not so novel after all."
--Victor Davis Hanson, Western Way of War
"A fascinating look at an oft-neglected subject. Mayor has collected many stories concerning attempts to use chemical and biological weapons in ancient warfare and brings them to life."
--Martin van Creveld, Transformation of War
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Brad Thor's recent bestselling novel
is based in part on Mayor's Greek Fire
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Scorpions were deeply feared in antiquity. Left: Greek warrior's shield decorated with a scorpion. Right: Modern re-creation of an ancient biological weapon, a "Scorpion Bomb" like those hurled at Romans during the siege of Hatra, near Mosul, Iraq, in the 2nd century AD. Copyright Cary Wolinsky National Geographic May 2005
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Naphtha-based incendiaries, such as Greek Fire (left) invented in the 7th century AD, were ancient precursors of modern napalm. Mesopotamian people developed military uses of petroleum as early as the 9th century BC. Right: Greeks observing Persians collecting volatile naphtha from an oil seep. Painting Copyright Robert Lapsley, ARAMCO
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It all started in Greek myth, when Hercules slew the terrible Hydra and dipped his arrows in the monster's venom, thereby poisoning his arrows. The myth predicts the practical and ethical dilemmas that have surrounded biological weapons ever since.
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