hurled the fragile containers at the Roman soldiers, covering them with poisonous, stinging arachnids. “It was a great
Wasp bombs forced out enemies seeking shelter in caves or tunnels under city walls.
psychological weapon,” says Mayor. “The Ro- mans didn’t usually give up on a siege; they stayed for as long as it took. But in this case, they withdrew. It was a spectacular defense with insects.” An- other example of an insect-based weap- on is the “wasp bomb,” which some ancient cultures used to drive their enemies from cave shelters and later from tunnels under city walls. The use of insects and other animals as offensive and defensive weapons didn’t die in antiquity. In World War II, Japanese forces attempted to militarize noxious insects and even rabid bats, with lim- ited success, while the U.S. consid- ered releasing incendiary-carrying bats over Japan. In Vietnam, the Army experimented briefly with the use of assassin bugs, which click when they sense the heat of prey, as a way to detect the presence of enemy soldiers, says Mayor.
Technology advances Ancient technology also produced some pretty impressive superweap- ons, according to Dr. Jonathan Roth, professor of history and director of the Burdick Military History Project
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
at San José State University in Califor- nia. One of the very first superweap- ons, developed by the Phoenicians around 900 B.C., was the oared war- ship with a bronze ram on the front. Guided by trained oarsmen, the rams sank enemy ships by creating gaping holes just below the waterline. On land, the development of the chariot as a weapons platform was a huge game changer, Roth says. “It was really the first weapon where people charged the enemy and where terror became part of the weapon,” he says. Attaching rotating blades to the axles of war chariots made them even more terrifying, a tactic used by Darius of Persia against Alexan- der the Great and by Mithradates VI of Pontus against the Romans. By the fourth century B.C., trained war elephants served a similar purpose in India and elsewhere, says Mayor.
Catapults and siege towers also were extremely effective superweapons that changed the scale of battle. Technologically speaking, how-
ever, perhaps the most impressive superweapon in antiquity was Greek fire — a devastating napalm-like naval armament that instilled terror in every single military force it was used against. Invented in the seventh century
by a Greek named Kallinikos, the exact formula for Greek fire and its delivery system have been lost to an- tiquity. Its effectiveness, however, is well-known. “All you had to do was say you had Greek fire and the enemy would flee,” Mayor says. “It was dreaded as much then as the nuclear bomb is today because there was no escape and no defense. Sailors would jump from their burning ships, but the water was burning, too.”
MONTH 2005 MILITARY OFFICER 59
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