Guarding Byzantine borders

The rich Byzantine Empire (see Chapter 6) was a prime target of raiders, so fast horse

patrols were a must to guard its borders. Stirrups, probably copied from the Avars,

gave the Byzantine patrols an advantage over Western Europeans, who didn’t have the

technology yet. This superiority coupled with the use of a commissariat (a support

organization that made sure cavalrymen and foot soldiers had enough to eat, even

during long sieges) made the Byzantine Empire extremely difficult for outsiders to

penetrate. Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, needed every advantage in the

seventh and eighth centuries as its troops faced a new and persistent foe: the Arabs.

The Arabs used stirrups, too, on relatively small, quick horses. More than great riders,

the Arabs focused their zeal to spread their new religion, Islam, in the seventh and

eighth centuries. They gained control of the Middle East and lands eastward into India

and westward across North Africa and Spain (see Chapter 6).

Yet Constantinople withstood the Arabs. The Byzantine capital (today it’s Istanbul,

Turkey) enjoyed a terrific strategic position, sitting on a point of high land jutting into

the sea. Unable to take the capital on horseback, in the eighth century the Arabs tried

ships, mounting a naval blockade that may have succeeded if not for Greek fire. A

military secret, Greek fire may have been mostly naphtha, refined from coal oil that

seeped to the surface from underground deposits. Whatever Greek fire was, it ignited

on impact and floated.

The Byzantines catapulted clay pots full of Greek fire onto the decks of enemy ships,

setting them aflame. Even if the pot missed, the pots’ contents burned atop the water.

Sometimes the Byzantines squirted Greek fire out of hand-powered pumps. After losing

too many ships, the Arabs called off the blockade.

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