Kallinikos (also spelled Callinicus) was a brilliant 7th-century artificer and engineer from Heliopolis. There is some debated evidence that he may have been Jewish. Whatever the case, Kallinikos’ family lived in Syria, which had fallen out of the Empire of Constantinople’s sphere of influence following the disastrous defeat of its forces by an Arab army at the Battle of Yarmuk (c. 636). Kallinikos eventually fled as a refugee from Syria, ultimately relocating to the imperial city of Constantinople. During the reign of Emperor Constantine IV (r. 668-685), Kallinikos became a leader of a top-secret project in Constantinople’s research and development department. In particular, Kallinikos was credited with inventing a flammable concoction that, when lit, could cover anything it touched with inextinguishable flames, and this fiery concoction could even float and burn on water. This Greek Fire, as it was called, was basically medieval napalm. A flame-thrower delivery method was developed in which the Greek Fire could be sprayed and set alight at a distance, posing a great threat to men and ships, alike.
A chronicler from Constantinople named Theophanes (c. 750s-818) wrote of Kallinikos and the first uses of Greek Fire in his Chronographia. Curiously, he mentioned the deployment of Greek Fire first, in an entry for Annus Mundi 6164 (September 672-August 673), and then spoke of Kallinikos in the following entry (Annus Mundi 6165 [September 673-August 674]), almost like an afterthought. The two references, rearranged for chronology, were as follows: “At that time Kallinikos, an artificer from Heliopolis, fled to the Romans. He had devised a sea fire which ignited the Arab ships and burned them with all hands. Thus it was that the Romans returned with victory and discovered the sea fire” (Theophanes, Chronographia, Annus Mundi 6165). Next, describing how Greek Fire was deployed in sea combat, Theophanes wrote, “When Constantine [IV] learned of the movement of God’s enemies against Constantinople, he prepared huge two-storied war-ships equipped with Greek fire and siphon-carrying warships, ordering them to anchor in the Proklianesian harbor of the Caesarium” (Theophanes, Chronographia, Annus Mundi 6164). Kallinikos’ Greek Fire proved to be a most useful weapon, turning the tide in Emperor Constantine IV’s struggle against Arab assaults.
Kallinikos likely oversaw several deployments of Greek Fire during his lifetime. The first use is somewhat disputed. Some scholars believe that Greek Fire may have been used during a sea battle off the Lycian coast in 671, but most historians place the first use of Greek Fire at the sea battle of Cyzicus in 673. Whatever the case, the deployment of Greek Fire was perfected during the Arab siege of Constantinople between 674 and 678, during which time Kallinikos’ flammable concoction wreaked havoc on the Arab fleet, forcing the Arabs to withdraw.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (illustration of medicine production, from Dispersed Manuscript of an Arabic Translation of De Materia Medica of Dioscorides, by Calligrapher Abdullah ibn al Fadl (c 1224), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the MET).
Sources:
- Theophanes, The Chronicle of Theophanes, translated by Harry Turtledove. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, edited by Oliver Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Callinicus-of-Heliopolis
