Fire and Sword: Ferocious and Deadly Thermal Weapons set the Ancient World Ablaze
One only had to witness cities devoured by flames, see fleets of ships sinking, their sails ablaze, or behold screaming victims doused in boiling pitch to know the deadly efficacy of ancient thermal weapons.
Warfare was brutal, but effective, in the ancient world, between conventional arms of sword, bow and shield, to the invisible but deadly poisons and biological weapons. But perhaps none were as instantly terrifying and widely destructive as thermal weaponry.
Early thermal weapons were used inventively in warfare during the classical and medieval periods (eighth century...Read more