What Are the Byzantine Grenadiers and Flamethrowers?
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- Опубліковано 26 лис 2023
- Full video: • Units of History - Byz...
The documentary begins with the broad trajectory of fire weapons, beginning as soon as mankind first learned to tame this powerful force of nature. The eventual discovery and exploitation of Naphtha would change the game by introducing a highly flammable liquid. The Byzantines quickly took control of the new material, shrouded it in secrecy, and experimented with ways on how to turn it into a weapon, leading to the famous Byzantine fire ships which are widely attested to. In this documentary, however, we look at the land application of the Byzantine grenadier and flamethrowers.
#shorts #history #documentary #rome
Battlefield 1242
chivalry comes to mind too
@@elric7415 Mount and Blade 2 has an entire faction based on the Byzantine Empire
@@weldonwinthe empire?
@@Darkness45825Correct
More like 972
Bro with the flamethrower lookin' straight out of 40k
Brother get the flamer...THE HEAVY FLAMER!!!
Thats what I thought they look like if thunder warriors had guardsmen
@@spencersecrest6001 oooo I'm imagining like, the precursors to the Solar Auxilia
@@ROBERTJMKLSDM7Q your spot on !
@@ROBERTJMKLSDM7Q more like Sororitas, considering their obsession with flamers
Dude this shit looks like something out of a RPG game
😂 bringing a flamethrower to a swordfight Sounds a little unfair
Not fantasy, Real Life
my DnD master never allowed me to use a flame thrower. And he was probably right
Role Playing Game game
Its almost like RPG games were based on real life time periods and societies 🤯
This shit crazy - Sun Tzu
sidorovich but young pfp
“Damn that’s lit” - George Washington (probably)
Gyat -king Henry of england
“Boy wat da hell”
-King Charles XII
stealing that quote @@DanielRodriguez-dt9rt
Man the Byzantines were so advanced, it's almost unbelievable. Corruption and Politicking brought down a great empire.
you could replace Byzantine with almost any other name and it would be the same
P.S. lol with the number of responses im getting i should point
out that not almost all but many other great empires suffered same fate, and I dont see how you can disagree with that. Im not a hater, im just pointing out to the previous statement out of my fascination. And moreover im not a hater of byzantine and i really love Greece and Byzantine 🤦♂️
they still held out, even prospered a loooooong time
@@wingedvictory8694 No, not really. No civillization or empire is identical to any other one, and Byzantium (Roman Empire) was top in all domains. From being the longest lasting empire, to being the most advanced of their time in certain centuries. Even the political struggle was so great, that the empire split in 2, split the largest religion in half and all the other events that are too long to even mention.
@wingedvictory8694 you know nothing 😂
@@mariosverras516 i meant that many empires fell to corruption and infighting
wasnt hating, just pointing out
Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
Yep. 😉😁
Anyone remember using holy grenade in Worms 4 on PS2 ?
AAAAALELULIA !!! 💥Oooooh~
@@orctriharI didn't play 4, but yeah.
"And Saint Attila raised the Hand Grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this Thy Hand Grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy." And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu...
And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."
-Book of Armaments
Chapter 2, verses 9 - 21
That's funny I live in a town called Antioch lol
The played Warhammer 1k
Naaaaah 💀
Warhammer 300
Tyranids won😔
Waaaaaaaggggggghh
So Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
“It’s 1250 why do I hear fortunate son playing”
"Grenadier flamethrowers on chariots with Archers (aka a F*CKING Tank) rolls up"
i ain’t no senator’s son
🎶 ooh, that red white and blue 🎶
@@generaleerelativity9524 "that red, gold and purple"
in Greek.
From Legionary to Grenadiers... The Romans never cease to impress us
These Romans was descendants of ancient Greeks
@@lamastu2156 Roman none the less.
@@user-sz4rr3gl5p Yes, everycitizen was called Roman. Not only Latins. The major army was Gaelic. The aristocracy was Greek. The religion was more Egyptian. All Romans.
Go open a book first and after open your mouth
@@lamastu2156 but inherited all the technology and administration of the Latins.
@@Tiberii1832 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Latins never developed technology. Greeks developed and Greek Romans developed again. Westerns only hated and jealoused Greek Romans.
Roman empire became great when simulate the Greek worls and still the Greek world was the most wealthy and the Coptics.
Call of duty:Ancient Warfare 2
Medieval!
Warhammer:ancient warfare
@@MastemaJackwarhammer fantasy exists
@@snoopyodig1137 but doesn't have the Salamanders
Call of Duty : WARZONE 14:53 is the last series.
everybody gangster till the Byzantine flamethrower pull up
From what we know, the 'flamethrowers' were mainly mounted on Dromon and used to set fire to ships.
There are also records of handheld devices for greek fire, like the cheirosiphon!
At least thats if i recall correctly lol
This is badass beyond comprehension
Please more on these rare units of the Byzantines
Just trying to picture all this in my mind is fun enough. Imagine actually being able to be a fly on the wall (so to speak. Invulnerable and invisible, in other words) on a battlefield and being able to actually see a battle where such weapons were used fist hand and close up.
The dream of pretty much any boy/adult interested in warfare 😁
Burning, painful, and sad I assume. War in any sense is better remember in the books than having to see it 1st hand
Don't you think it would be horrible? Its a bunch of people killing each other
Greek fire must of been absolutely terrifying
@@takemeout5687I FUCKING LOVE WAR!!!
I thought this was some shit out of Warhammer for a second
The Imperium had to start somewhere
@@TheGreatThicc the word itself comes from the Romans and the Emperors were called Imperatores. Plus the Byzantines used the two headed eagle.
You can play both units in conqueror's blade. I had no idea it had a real historical basis, so impressed
Too bad Conq is a terrible game with horrible balance and an over-reliance on FOMO and borderline pay-to-win mechanics.
Yes the real impact in battlefield those weapons and units had may be unknown to us, but just have in mind that the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) survived the fall of the Western Empire for one thousand years.
There have been some recovered evidences of them being used during siege especially by Byzantine shock troops scaling enemy walls and the effect- unsurprisingly- was devastating..
The reason the caliphate failed at taking Constantinople
But not the Ottomans.
@@LonelyParticle231Can't beat overwhelming numbers.
@@LonelyParticle231would they have done it without there mighty Baltic slave soldiers probably not
On point.@@ub3rfr3nzy94
@@spencersecrest6001baltic?
Ah yess, a bizantine amogus armor. Truly a invention of its time
💀💀
It protected against sneak attacks.
😂😂
It was worn by Emperor Sustinian himself
@@malaizze My favourite emperor Sustinian de Vent
Wow, that's impressive, though the armor of the grenadier is kinda sus.
What is that even supposed to mean?
@@wowngh1778 it means the armor could be an impostor
I thought you meant the armour might innacurate to the operational context of the granadier troop. But yeah, sussy balls fortnite brainrot
get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head
I SHOULDN'T HAVE LOOKED I SHOULDN'T HAVE LOOKED I SHOULDN'T HAVE LOOKED I SHOULDN'T HAVE LOOKED I SHOULDN'T HAVE LOOKED
"Hans! Get ze flammenwerfer!"
"Κώστα! Φέρε το φλογοβόλο!"
Herhaufer!
Byzantine history needs more love in popular culture.
The flame throwers were used on ships and its been well documented but portables flame throwers not soo much ! The mechanism for the ship version makes sense but i dont think they mastererd the army land version ! It would have been documented if they' did
A lot of our history is really undocumented, and since greek fire was already highly classified especially its recipe I reckon the weapons made to use it are also high classified or at the very least lost to time.
Even the formula of Greek fire is not documented.
There is an actual historical depiction of the portable byzantine flamethrower
@@Phantom-xp2coa poor one. It wasn't really detailed and could've shown a swivel mounted one or a one off siege weapon.
@@megathicc6367 a poor one? It clearly shows a guy holding a portable flamethrower device with his hands.
@@Phantom-xp2co yeah and apparently siege towers are a ladders going up towards a floating platform if you follow everything it showed. There was details missing.
Crazy armor
holy shit hes got the amongus armor
In earth not to much there’s no evidence of this being desisive in any battle, but on sea yes it was very efective and do give the Greeks great advantage
Was used on the Great Walls of Constantinople too
“Wait till I put a switch on this.”
Byzantine Nikkas
The handheld flamethrowers were already full auto. Press the trigger down and it emits a continuous jet of flames. Now imagine if they developed a mechanism allowing pulsed fire, with selection between pulse and continuous burst. It would have been the ultimate close range infantry weapon. One or two pulses would completely incinerate an enemy soldier. And to think of it, fire is plasma, so these were the first plasma weapons.
Beautifully done my goodness
Greek fire was adopted by the crusaders (eventually) and evolved particularly for siege warfare into things like the trump (a long pole with essentially a pot full of greek fire that acted like a flamethrower when lit) and large flaming hoops that could be thrown from the walls and bastions. These were used to great effect in the siege of Malta 1565 and caused a lot of damage to the Turks due to their long flowing robes they wore with armour. If you read Balbi de Correggio's account of the siege he gives a lot of credit to the aforementioned adaptations of greek fire. Interestingly the Turks had some greek fire weapons too but their effectiveness was diminished as the defenders placed large barrels of water to jump into if they were attacked with greek fire. If anyone's interested I strongly recommend reading about the siege of Malta 1565. There's a great book by Ernle Bradford called the great siege.
Grenadier rocking that Amogus chainmail 🥶
And they say Byzantines suck arse compared to Imperial rome. To be fair in terms of land, resources and troops it is true but in terms of badassery the Byzantines are better
There the same thing
@@Nooob3775nope, Byzantine Rome is a different era.
@@BaritoneMonkeyit's the same empire that had to adapt to new challenges.east was always more populous and rich when compared to west .
@@Abk367 Huh, I did some digging and it seems like you might have a point historically. Sure, the Byzantine empire was a continuation of the Eastern Roman empire.
I guess the argument for my point that I'll make is that with the classical period of history literally defined as ending when the Western Roman Empire fell, doesn't it still make sense to distinguish between Classical (Western) Rome centered in Italy vs the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Byzantium?
@@BaritoneMonkeyno. It seems a arbitrary distinction as far the populace concerned. Naturally they are dramatically different like medieval england and modern day england. But we don't call it differently. The change was gradual and its the true continuation of Rome.
Dude in blue looks like ultramar auxilia
Anything remotely related to ultramarines are mostly Greek inspired so that would make sense
I am so into warhammer fantasy's algorithm that i thought this was part of bretonia
Never again mistake the glorious Romans for fantasy French
Them grenadier's armour be looking mighty sus 👀
From my knowledge the only application of Greek fire was a siphon on a ship used in the siege defense of Constantinople against the caliphate. I don’t ever remember hearing of grenadiers or anything like that. It is also believed to have not been very useful outside of that because the sea conditions have to be tame for its use because it’s basically as dangerous for the byzantines as it is the enemy and it needs prep time.
Turks werent caliphate in those times. They became caliphate when the 1. Selim captured mamluks and macca.
@@odez5412 I’m not talking about the turks
@@abuhajaar2533 okay
@@odez5412he meant arabs
@@abuhajaar2533ABU HAJAAARRRR
Netflix is making Alexander the great. Get ready 😂😂
It's gonna be Terry crews as Alexander the great
I seen quite a bit about grenadiers, but not much about Byzantine Flamethrowers, other than just that they existed. It's a shame we don't have more records about the part they played in ancient warfare. But if you want to see a replica design in use, produced by an Ancient Engineering expert , along with a reproduced blue print of the weapon... You can watch the show "Ancient Discoveries." It's a really really interesting show.
I have a hypothesis that Greek fire is actually some concoction of grease since grease reacts wildly to water
It burned on water so it was some kind of grease or oil
Turn the music up, i can still hear the narrator
Greek fire was actually called roman fire. Usage of the term "Greek fire" has been general in English and most other languages since the Crusades, but original Roman sources called the substance a variety of names, such as "sea fire" (Medieval Greek: πῦρ θαλάσσιον pŷr thalássion), "Roman fire" (πῦρ ῥωμαϊκόν pŷr rhōmaïkón). Never in the eastern roman history as it called "greek fire" other than in modern days.
Not only that it was created by Callinicus of Heliopolis. A Syrian Jew, who was born in Syria during the reign of emperor Constantine Pogonatus.
I mean, Roman Fire makes sense, the Byzantines never called themself Greek or Byzantine, they called themselves Roman.
Yes and the so called "byzantines" called themselves romans (romaioi in greek) and their kingdom "the Roman Empire".
@@xochitlxochipa4965 Yup! Everyone who loves the eastern roman empire and calls it byzantine is just insulting it.
@@ibraheemshuaib8954Byzantines were Greeks with Roman citizenship. They called themselves Romaioi (Romans, due to their Roman citizenship), Graikoi (Greeks), Hellenes (Greeks), Helladikoi (Greeks), Romellenes (Roman Greeks). So yes, they called themselves Greeks because that's what they were. And the inhabitants of Constantinople called themselves Byzantines, the term just wasn't used for the inhabitants of the whole empire.
@@jackmack6217I am Greek and I don't find it insulting. Why do you find it insulting? I find it way more insulting when people play games with the word "Roman" (a term that had a completely different meaning during the medieval period and was used by completely different people) . They take advantage of the fact that medieval Greeks had Roman citizenship (and as a result were Roman citizens/Romans) and try to misleadingly present them as the same people as the ancient romans. Don't you think that it's worse when people try to deliberately hide the fact that Byzantines were the medieval Greeks and try to present them as if they were the same people as the ancient romans?
feels like the Germans of the 1940's in terms of experimenting with cutting edge specialist weapons, as an attempt to compensate for the increasing lack of manpower. perhaps not a perfect parrallel, but it's a shame that we don't know more about what the Byzantines were also up to at the time.
They were better at keeping secrets than the germans, that's all. Arabs also knew about greek fire but called it "nafta". The word survives to our day so it's likely flamethrowers were just impractical or too expensive.
@@korosuke1788'Nafta' as in: "North American Free Trade Agreement? 😅
@@liammeech3702 close enough
@@liammeech3702naptha
@@majordakka5743 ah, ok
Basically they manufactured their own Napalm.
Humans sure love thinking of new ways to kill each other. No wonder aliens dont make contact with us.
Great!
But please make more research on historical accuracy of the soldiers 💜
Yeah. The Grenadier seems very likely. In fact it seems the most rudimentary form of applying Greek Fire would be throwing it at the enemy. The flame thrower is interesting though. It took large contraptions for the Byzantine to have flame throwers on ships
@@tylerschoen5643 larger contraption for larger fire at larger targets.
We know they had both, we just don't know anything about them.
I think It's AI generated images
@@PEDRELVIS Invicta draws their own artwork
"When the enemy marches up with flamethrowers, there won't be any leftovers"
- Sun Tzu
When you fighting the Byzantines and then you hear:
"MEET THE PYRO"
Imagine charging some guy down with 40 of your horse buddies, just to get BATHED in a cloud of flames
There is no Byzantium, there is Eastern Rome.
Truth.
The Romans are just so badass
There probably weren't many battles. When you see the enemy magically squirting napalm for their op check from across the battlefield, you probably just went home.
These new cosmetics for Pyro and Demoman look fucking BADASS
I heard a rumor that some historians believe that greek fire was made from human fat from war prisoners, criminals or random captured peasants, which is a reason why the formula for greek fire was kept hidden. They did not want to be seen as more barbaric than other civilizations.
I doubt they cared, remember they had instituted slavery, blood sport, castration and blindness as punishments etc
I highly doubt it was hand held or used for field battles. The only source we have on the hand held flamethrower is a poor illustration of a guy on top of a tower. It could very well have been mounted on a swivel.
The idea of hand held cocking guns with oil is so amazing
Suddenly Warhammer doesn't seem so crazy
Gotta love those Eastern Romans.
But, if Romans were to continue on to the modern world, they would definitely create some crazy weaponry. From tanks to artillery and to bombers. Man, if only one could imagine.
Well all that stuff exists today. But: It does also because the world never had that long lasting and that big dominating empires ever after. What would be the point of " changing a running system" . Invention comes from struggle.
@@mr.someone52 that I understand, but it is more like a what if in the alternate World scenario if Rome hadn't fallen then it'll been something interesting to see
@@3452te You need a dual rivalry to make an age of military strive for new weapons.
Rome alone couldn't have achieved so much.
@@patriot5514Rome doesn't need to still be all powerful in Europe, it could've survived as a smaller nation than what it once was, then continuing to fight the other European powers in the same way that they did. Could imagine a world where the roman empire collapses everywhere cept Greece and Italy, Greece eventually falling the same way it did in our time, but the Romans in Italy continuing to live on.
Badass but I would point out there was no “Roman predecessor”, they were Romans themselves.
They were Greeks.
Holy roman empires, Latin empires disagree
@@patriot5514 they were a mix of people, many italians, many greeks, many syrian, many egyptian. However they all called themselves roman.
I say they was after the 4th crusade because the Byzantine empire was disbanded completely. And when reconquest did happen they wasn't the same.
@@cognitivedisability9864No, after the 7th century only the Greek Speaking Greek Orthodoxs considered themselves and were Considered Roman by the Byzantines. The only exception is the Greek Orthodox Arabic speaking Melkites who also self identified as Roman in northern Syria but the Byzantines considered them Romans who had been Arabized.
Armenians, Bulgarians, other Slavs, Italians(Lombards), Sardinians, Venetians were all considered separate from the Romans despite being fellow Roman citizens.
Well they definitely created efficient BBQ
"Just just hear me out dude...what if.. i could shoot fire" 🤯
- byzantine dude
It’s all fun and games until the grenadiers and flame troopers show up
His hand held flame rifle seems to have had some sort of compass as the stock for aliging the geometry perfectly thats so intelectual for a weapon
Mehmet the Conqueror was like: "Oh you like firepower? I've got just the thing for you!"
“Eveolution” got me pissed
Thing was so secret they eventually forgot the formula lol
imagine ur some random peasant from else where and seeing a man shooting fire out of a box sheer terror
Now we know where the phrase "Parry this you fucking casual" came from
This just gave me reasons and ideas to include grenadiers and flamethrowers in a high fantasy setting.
but what if, in 1256, the Byzantines/Eastern Romans had also adopted and standardized the usage of gunpowder weapons and pioneered the use of breechloading muskets too?
I’m sorry but is that dude carrying a Mother F-ing Medieval Flamer! 😱🤯
The graneder guy's armor is lookin kinda SUSPICIOUS
Armor:there's an imposter among us
When you are playing a strategy game and one country is way ahead of the tech tree:
"Holyshit that dude just launched a stream of fire at us!"- sun tzu, the art of war
An army blessed by the knowledge of steel and fire
I'll admit I thought that Greek fire was only used in a naval context. I didn't realize the byzantines had managed to make it relatively man Portable to use on an infantry battlefield
Imagine having enough of WW2 themes and switching to medieval themed games for new experiences only to be troubled by a dumbed down version of flamethrowers
History is always 10x more fascinating than the idea we have from grade school curriculum and media portrayals. Also many people aren’t aware of just how old firearms and explosives/incendiary weapons really are. It’s crazy to think that these types of weapons are the better part of 1000 years old at a minimum
Can you imagine being a modern soldier at the time and some Byzantine just walks up to you and you hear the doom music start playing.
This is where the legends of Merlin and Arthur seeded from
I would love to have these as castle units instead of cataphracts.
insert funny video game reference here
If they raised hell, they would've wrote about it. Next story
imagine being like: oh look the byzantines are throwing stones at us, and then the stones explode
Greek Fire is equivalent to our modern day napalm+flamethrower
Battlefield use might be grenades or reminiscent of fire spear but i always imagined them being used on ships, towers, fortification, in sapping mines to smoke out the and perhaps in fire ships
Medieval version of wunderwaffen; highly advanced, experimental weapons that were unable to save a dying empire despite being ahead of their time
Imagine you rolling up to a battle with your spear and shield and these guys just throw grenades at your forrmations.
Idk why I’m watching this at 10am on a Friday but I’m fucing with it
0:33 Ancient bro has Amongus Armor.
At the medieval age, I wouldn’t surprised if flamethrower is an effective weapon.
Bro made the artwork look like a modern gun and everybody think that's historically correct 💀
They wanted gunpowder so bad. 😂
Now I know where Conqueror's Blade took the medieval flamethrowers from 😂
For anyone who doesn't know, this Greek Fire can't be extinguished by water
I knew the had Greek fire and early grenades but Flamethrowers? That’s impressive
Military technology always evolves. 😮
When you want to humble the Phalanx formation
Drachinifel had a good video series in grek fire and it is interesting yo see the impact it had on warfare of the time.
The Cheirosiphon was awesome!
Dude got the among us armor