They say all ’s sightly in love and war , but when it descend to Black Death Bombs and sending donkey taint with deadly pathogen hurl into the foe , we ’re not certain we agree . foresighted beforeOppenheimerbecameDeath , destroyer of worlds , with theatomic bomb , humans were amount up with creative way of life to maim and kill one another , and many leaned on the devastating mightiness of the rude world .
confessedly not everything they fall up with was peculiarly sophisticated – we ’re looking at you , poo bomber of the Middle Ages – but others came up with ruinous chemical concoctions that rest a closed book to scientific discipline today . Let ’s take a feel at five of the worst – or best , depending on your outlook – weaponsborn from ancient war .
Scorpion bombs
Almost 2,000 class ago , humans find a way to weaponize scorpions by creating earthenware bomb pack full of venomous arachnid . As author ofGreek Fire , Poison Arrows , And Scorpion BombsAdrienne Mayorexplains , they were thrust at Romanist soldier parade under the pattern of Emperor Septimius Severus in 198 - 99 atomic number 58 as they tried to siege the ancient desert city of Hatra .
The soldiers endured20 grueling daysof exploding scorpion bomb calorimeter rain down down on them , their contents targeting disclose areas of skin admit the face and center . Eventually , the Hatrien defence were triumphant , and Severus ’s army rend back .
Infectious rams and donkeys
One of theearliest good example of biological warfareis attributed to the Hittite Plague that strike the Eastern Mediterranean in the 14thcentury BCE . It ’s think that the bacterial disease yatobyo ( caused byFrancisella tularensis ) was weaponized in the form of infected Ram and domestic ass that were deploy along the barter routes of enemy .
A combination of accidental and malicious spreading of the disease saw it spread far and encompassing – not surprising generate what theCenters For Disease Control And Preventionhave to say about it : “ Tularemia , a bacterial zoonotic disease , is because of Francisella tularensis , one of the most infectious pathogenic bacteria known . It command inoculation or inhalation of as few as 10 being to cause disease . ”
War elephants
Pyrrhus , King of Epirus , sustain a humiliating frustration as he tried to settle a dispute in Argos with a fleet of war elephant . The tale goes that the consistency of one of his at rest war elephants was obstruct the exit when it came time to leave alone , and it air the remaining elephantine cavalry into a delirium .
In the fallout , Pyrrhus was injured by an foeman soldier , and in return stabbed him to death . In her grief - struck rage , the mother of the stab victim hurled a tile at Pyrrhus ’s head and struck her prey .
War elephant were effective against cavalry on horseback and came in handy when squishing enemy human beings , too . They could even have their ivory kitted out with capitulum to add an extra element of danger , but the living tankful were n’t without their washy spots – oh no , because then came the conflict squealer .
Pyrrhus and his war elephants.Image credit: Story of the Romans - Helene Guerber, Public Domain, viaWikimedia Commons
Battle pigs
you could suppose the cacophony of audio that plays out during a battle of old : the clang of blade , the cry of slain humans . But for all that chaos there was one sound that got to warfare elephants unlike anything else : the squeal of a panic-stricken pig .
When Pyrrhus first bring war elephant to the Romans in 280 BCE – can you imagine being on the frontline and examine that ? – they noticed that their poor sightedness paired ill with a sensitivity to sound , and nothing upset them quite like fink swine . As Mayor wrote forThe Conversation , this motivated them to unleash a counterplay of pigs , contribute to the laborious losses that would gain the King the immortal phrase a Pyrrhic victory , which intend to win , but at great personal cost .
Greek Fire
Did you ever imagine you could correct fire to water ? The Byzantine Empire did n’t have to when architect Callinicus of Heliopolis create a deadly arm called Greek Fire that was used in naval warfare . First introduced under Emperor Constantine Pogonatus ’ reign in 672 CE , it kick in to the great military blockade of Constantinople and its " secret rule " was closely guarded .
When hurled at ship , some chemical concoction made up of petroleum or naptha ( a inflammable fluid hydrocarbon salmagundi ) would catch fire , even catching fire on piss . Its exact fixings and mechanics of ignition are n’t love for sure , but according toRoyal Museums Greenwich , lime may have been used to get the chemical chemical reaction move . With water doing nothing to get rid of the fire , those under attack want sand or acetum to put the Greek firing out .
Corpse and feces projectiles
When the Hatrien defense started using their overabundance of venomous scorpions to harness the foe , they found an ingenious way to take something they had too much of and wield it to their advantage . Regrettably , in history , the same can be said of human excrement and corpses .
At the same time that mass were fly the bubonic plague , others were hurling it at their enemies with gay abandon . It would have been a tough tab to swallow for the healer of sure-enough trying to come up with a remedy – some of which wereworse than the disease itself – to know that elsewhere there were armies using infected corps like bomb calorimeter .
The Mongol army flung corpses infect with bubonic plague over the walls during the Siege of Caffa around 1346 , reportsDiscover Magazine . In what suffice as a square lesson of the event of biological war , Genoese traders then carried the plague from Caffa to Europe , and we all know how that went .
Goodness gracious, Greek boats and fire.Image credit: Codex Skylitzes Matritensis, Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, Vitr. 26-2, Bild-Nr. 77, f 34 v. b. (taken from Pászthory, p. 31), Public Domain viaWikimedia
Poop has similarly been cast aside to cover opposition in contagions and speculative smell , but it ’s also been used as an accoutrement for blade and arrow . consort to theOffice of Justice Programs , these approaches were pop among Scythian archers and papist soldiers , respectively , who saw everything from excretory product and blood to putrefy corpses as an chance to plus up the potency of their weapon system .
So , just a few things to commemorate the next time you hear someone being nostalgic for the good old days . When were they , exactly ?
