Origins of Biological & Chemical Warfare

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The origins of biological and chemical warfare stretch far back; modern technology has not brought about these terrifying weapons. Throughout antiquity we have cases of societies using poisonous gases, incendiary materials and living organisms against their enemies. From snake and scorpion bombs to the use of ancient naphtha grenades. But how did the ancients view these infamous weapons? Did they try to refrain from using them? And if they did use them, why?

I was thrilled to be joined by Adrienne Mayor to chat through this extraordinary topic. Adrienne is a folklorist and historian of ancient science at Stanford University. She is the author of numerous books including Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Ancients, a new podcast dedicated to all things, well, ancient.
0:08.0	I'm Tristan Hughes and in each episode I'll be chatting with a world-leading historian
0:12.6	or archaeologist about our distant past.
0:16.4	The art, the architecture, the battles, the larger-than-life personalities, events that
0:21.7	have helped shape the world we live in today.
0:24.6	From Neolithic Britain to the fall of Rome, from the Assyrians to Alexander the Great.
0:34.3	Boy have I got a great topic for you today.
0:36.2	I've got Adrienne Meyer on the podcast.
0:38.5	She is a fantastic historian and we are talking about biochemical warfare in the ancient
0:45.1	world.
0:46.1	Yes, that's right.
0:47.1	We're talking scorpion bombs.
0:48.1	We're talking snake bombs.
0:49.5	We're talking ancient flamethrowers.
0:51.3	We're talking ancient grenades.
0:53.2	We're talking the use of plague to attack besieged cities and citadels.
0:57.3	We're talking poison arrows.
1:00.1	We're talking poison in general.
1:02.7	It was insane.
1:03.8	This was an amazing podcast to record.
1:06.6	We had so much fun and I hope you have just as much fun listening to it.
1:11.5	Enjoy.
	...

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