Introduction Image: Horatianus, Octavius. The Four Books on Medicine. 1532. World Digital Library, Washington D.C. From: Qatar National Library, http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10682/#q=arrows&time_periods=500-1499&qla=en (Accessed July 10, 2015). ;xNLx;;xNLx;Background Image: Bruegel, Peter. The Triumph of Death. 1562. Oil on canvas, 117 x 162 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. From: Museo Nacional del Prado, https://www.museodelprado.es/typo3temp/pics/b71185aa24.jpg (Accessed July 6, 2015).
The prevalence of biological warfare and poisoned arrows existed not only in Europe and the Middle East, but in regions of Asia as well. In India, poison arrows were commonly used in warfare; however, their usage received mixed reactions. Despite the Brahmanic Laws of Manu's caution towards the use of poison in warfare, the Arthashastra was a treatise created by Kautilya to aid King Chandragupta in his military strategy. Kautilya called for the king "to use any means, with no moral constraints, to obtain his military goals," while at the same time, through the treatise, provided an extensive list of recipes for creating biological and biochemical weapons, whether for coating weapons, poisoning food and water supplies, or through other methods (Mayor 91). Indian society often felt justified in utilizing biochemical weapons against immense threats, such as that of Alexander the Great. Yet, there was immense disagreement on the extent of its use as a moral and spiritual issue.
As the battle between the Roman and Persian armies evolved in 198-199 CE, the methodology of warfare took a turn into biological warfare. The city of Hatra was surrounded by deserts crawling with scorpions. As natural historian Aelian describes, scorpions lurked "beneath every stone and clod of dirt" (Mayor 182). With the Romans quickly encroaching on their fortified city, the Persian army began hurling clay-pot bombs filled with scorpions at the attackers. The psychological fear of scorpions and other poisonous animals during this time was evident, as numerous societies painted scorpions and snakes upon their shields and weapons as a scare tactic during times of war. The use of scorpion bombs during warfare proved effective and the practice continued in various military strategies in future years.
Despite the widespread use of poisoned arrows in war within India, the traditional Hindu Laws of Manu forbade the use of toxic weapons. These laws "explicitly proscribed the use of arrows that were barbed, poisoned, or blazing with fire" (Mayor 91). The laws were originally maintained through oral history, but were later transcribed in 150 CE in Sanskrit. These early documents forbidding biological warfare are the earliest of their kind in explicitly proscribing biochemical weapons. However, the laws are noted as instead encouraging the use of "spoil[ing] the grass and water of a besieged enemy," which is its own type of biological warfare, albeit more indirect (33).
Beyond the use of poisoned weapons in Ancient Greece, this ancient civilization also marks the earliest known use of poisoning water supplies as a method of biological warfare. In order to protect the religious sanctuary of Delphi, the site of the Oracle of Apollo, numerous Greek city-states came together to create the Amphictionic League (Mayor 100). During this time, the city of Kirrha supposedly appropriated some of Apollo's land, as well as mistreated many pilgrims on their way to Delphi. After consulting the Oracle, total war against the city of Kirrha began in what was known as the First Sacred War. During this war, the city was supposed to be entirely decimated and "its territory laid waste" (100). According to numerous accounts during the war, several military strategists would cut off the water supply and as the people inside the city struggled with thirst the water would be restored, but now, it was contaminated with hellebore (101). As the Kirrhans fell sick to their stomach and could barely move, the city was taken with little resistance.
While much debate exists in whether flaming weapons can be grouped in with other biological and biochemical weapons, how fire, flames and flaming weapons were used in Antiquity suggests they fall within the same category. Supposedly "burning materials often produce toxic, asphyxiating smoke and this potentially useful aspect of incendiaries was not overlooked in antiquity" (Mayor 222). The potency and effective nature of this smoke was often used in Ancient China, sometimes going so far as to create "irritating gases by burning particularly noxious substances" creating a sort of poisonous cloud of smoke mixed with sulphur and arsenic (222). This method of warfare and poisoning also appeared in the Peloponnesian War, the Arthashastra, the times of Alexander the Great, and well on into the times of the Crusades and into modern history.
The mythological tales of Hercules and the Hydra held a realm of influence beyond the Greeks. Scythia, a land of nomadic peoples, was a society that greatly admired the Greek hero Hercules (Mayor 78-79). It is believed their love and admiration for Hercules helped facilitate their advantageous use of biological warfare through the use of poisoned weapons. The belts of Scythian warriors were of an unusual shape as they housed a small golden vial, presumably used for holding poison. As well, the Scythians invented the gorytus, which (as shown in the attached image) was a bow case-quiver combination allowing for a safety flap to hep prevent contact with the poisoned tips of arrows (78). Through statements from Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Aelian, the recipe for scythicon (Scythian poison) can be derived. Scythicon is believed to have a combination of viper venom, human blood serum, dung or human feces, and matter from decomposed vipers (80-81). The overwhelming prowess of the Scythians in ancient history draws attention to not only the effectiveness of poisoned weapons, but also the psychological damage of biological warfare.
The Greek myth of Pandora speaks to the ancient notion that disease, poison or other contaminants could be housed in a container, only to be released at a later time - often as a weapon. The coincidental spread of plague with boxes arriving in cities dates back to 1 Samuel wherein the Philistines were at war with the Israelites (Mayor 128-129). Without an explanation for events such as The Great Plague of 165-180 CE and the Black Death, the belief that one could intentionally spread disease through containment was often widely accepted and feared (131). Therein, Pandora's Box was not merely an outdated Greek myth, but a recurring explanation for the spread of disease and a misnomer for biological warfare, as germ theory has gone on to prove.
During the Middle Ages, the primary method of understanding the world and the basis of most people's lives were deeply rooted in religion. Consequently, the effects of religious thought on medicine and medicinal thought was undeniable. Dante's Divine Comedy, in particular The Inferno, provides an interesting lens into how fear of religious retribution and hell controlled mindsets during this time. With the timing around that of the Black Death, individuals faced with the pandemic of plague often became even more religious out of fear or they moved away from religion entirely (Jordan, "The Black Death"). Books such as Dante's Inferno helped to frame common understandings and conceptions of life, death, suffering, retribution, and the afterlife.
The Siege of Caffa* from 1346 to 1348 marks one of the most significant acts of biological warfare in the ancient world. Tensions between Christian merchants inside of Caffa and the Tartars who sought to besiege them for several years hit a new peak as fear and panic swept over the Tartars in congruence with the spread of disease. As noted by Gabriele De’ Mussi, a notary in the town of Piacenza, “the dying Tartars, stunned and stupefied by the immensity of the disaster…lost interest in the siege. But they ordered corpses to be placed in catapults and lobbed into the city in the hope that the intolerable stench would kill everyone inside” (Wheelis 973). While this period was still markedly separate from an understanding of germ theory, basic theories and explanations existed (stench, body to body contact, etc) that demonstrate an understanding that disease can spread through close contact with other diseased bodies, making this event an undeniable act of biological warfare.
The overwhelming religious response to the pandemic of plague was not unique to Europe. The origins of the Black Death trace back to Asia. The overwhelming of Daoism (or Taoism) during this time was reflected in the deity of Marshal Wen, or the Daoist protector against plague ("The Taoist Renaissance: Taoism and Popular Religion"). Due to the climate and environment in southern China, the presence of plagues was not uncommon resulting in the growth of support and worship around this deity during the Black Death and during numerous other periods of Chinese history by merchants, scholars, priests, and peasants alike.
Dating back to the Neolithic Era, beehive bombs exist as one of the earliest projectile weapons and forms of biological warfare. The use of bees as a biological weapon can be found in texts across the world, from the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy in the Bible to the sacred text of the Maya, the Popol Vuh, in Central America to the book "How to Survive under Siege" by Aeneas the Tactician (Mayor 176-179). The use of bees, wasps, and hornets as entomological weapons crosses through a myriad of cultures and time periods.
Within the chronicles of Hercules and his Twelve Labors, Greek mythology provides an interesting chronicle of biological weaponry. When Hercules found himself pitted against the Hydra his typical weapons proved useless as the Hydra thrived off of its own injuries, as a result Hercules dipped his weapons in the blood of the Hydra creating powerful poisoned weapons which led him to victory (Mayor 43-44). As the stories of the Greek hero continue, the use of Hydra venom in other ventures and battles continues. The mythological use of biological weapons, however, was far from simply fantastical. Other instances of poisoned weapons in the Greek world were chronicled through Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer's description of "black blood" referred to the blood of soldiers struck with poisoned weapons (50). The tales of the Trojan War contain numerous other counts of weapons being poisoned and despite numerous attempts by the Greeks to claim poisoned weapons were barbaric and only used by enemies fails to hold up to the prevalence of poisoned weaponry in literature, art, and archeological findings.
Written in 1491 in Latin and republished in Italian in 1493, Johannes de Ketham's Fascicolo di medicina combines ancient and medieval practices in medicine with innovations deriving from the Renaissance. The book provides a series of illustrations alongside the text providing an incredible level of insight into the advancement of medicine and medical technology during this time ("Johannes de Ketham: Fasciculo di medicina (38.52)"). The Renaissance provided an immense period for growth surrounding medical understanding as a result of the fear and terror, as well as drive for answers, following the Black Death in Europe.
While mandrakes are neither biological weapon nor greatly significant in ancient medicine, the mythology of this anthropomorphic root provides a fascinating lens to further understand how spirituality and medicinal knowledge collide in the ancient world. Dating back to the Book of Genesis, the connections between mandrakes and fertility are undeniable (Carter 144). The mythical belief that mandrake roots could aid in fertility led to their adaptation in human thought as bearers of good fortune, wealth, power, and luck. The juxtaposition of what seemed to be a godly ordained acceptance of mandrake as an aid of fertility to its connections to witchcraft and magic provide an interesting juxtaposition between spirituality, religion, and how people of these times understood medicine, botany and magic. The myths of the mandrake, however, were not all positive with later tales denoting the uprooting of a mandrake as a bringer of curses (as shown in the attached image). The root was brought to England in the 11th century which helped to influence the works of William Shakespeare and Niccolò Machiavelli, as well as random folklore that continued into the modern age (146). Myths and theories around mandrake roots demonstrate the immense desire of humans to find answers and explanations for the world around them, whether they be supernatural or religious. The connections between nature, magic, religion and medicine during the ancient world were constantly evolving and each contributed to how people from a myriad of different societies understood the world around them.
In the 4th century BCE what has been named the Hittite plague spread across the Middle East. The Hittite plague was not an isolated incident, however, with numerous other random (and often unnamed) plagues striking the surrounding areas. Following centuries of research, the plague is believed to have been a spread of tularemia, a bacterial disease that exists without a cure even into the modern era (Moore, “Hittites ‘used germ warfare 3,500 years ago’”). The epidemic of tularemia also stands as one of the earliest forms of biological warfare. During numerous Hittite conquests, they used sheep (as well as possibly donkeys and stags) as carriers of tularemia to decimate and infect enemy cities (Trevisanato 1372-74).
The ancient history of rabies as a biological weapons dates back to the times of early Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece. From Aelian's attempts to find a cure for the disease to the Arthashastra's recipes for creating "mad-dog venom," the presence of rabies as a biological weapon, whether intentional or incidental, was evident. Several thousand years later, Leonardo da Vinci suggested the idea of weaponizing rabies, to make them more potent and a more intense biological weapon. Da Vinci describes a terror-bomb "created from sulphur, arsenic, tarantula venom, toxic toads, and the saliva of mad dogs" (Mayor, "Was Rabies Used an Ancient Biological Weapon?"). This extensive and complex combination of biological and chemical weapons provides a glance into biological warfare as it advanced alongside the growing knowledge and understanding of medicine and disease treatment.
Bees, wasps, and hornets as a biological and entomological weapon dates back to the Neolithic Era; however, the practice expands evidently into the modern world. In 1642 during the Thirty Years' War in Germany, soldiers utilized beehive bombs as a defense tactic to fend off Swedish knights (Mayor 181). In the mid-1930s, Ethiopians under attack from Mussolini utilized beehives to defend themselves against invading Italian tanks (181). The use of bees in war strategy has even progressed insofar as being used by the Pentagon. Starting in 1998, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the United States began to explore "Controlled Biological Systems [in order] to create sophisticated war technologies based on entomology and zoology" (186-188).
As history progressed into the colonial period and Europe dominated over the New World, biological warfare continued to play a role through the transference of smallpox. While numerous accounts and historical records suggest that smallpox was an unintended side effect of landing on a new continent and interacting with new people, which it undeniably was to some extent, there are numerous accounts “suggest[ing] the deliberate use of smallpox to diminish the native Indian population” (Riedal 400). One journal even goes so far as to state “I hope it will have the desired effect,” upon giving smallpox-laden blankets to Native Americans (400).
Cuneiform law tablets from Mesopotamia circa 2000 BCE reflect the earliest known reference to human understanding of capability of rabies to jump from animals to humans. However, it was not until the 5th or 6th century BCE that knowledge of rabies spread to Europe, China and Anatolia. Following the disease reaching Ancient Greece, natural historian Aelian began not only searching and testing for a cure, but also made reference to the use of rabies, or what he referred to as “mad-dog venom,” as a potential weapon (Mayor, "Was Rabies Used an Ancient Biological Weapon?"). The use of rabies as a toxin and as an element of more advanced biological weapons appear throughout time (see slides on: The Arthashastra and Leonardo da Vinci’s Terror-Bomb).
Beyond the uses of snakes venom in poisoning weapons and clay-pots filled with venomous animals as biological weapons, the cobra (and some other serpents) in Ancient Egypt acted as deities with the duty of protecting the king. Numerous depictions demonstrate a cobra at the tip of kings' brows with the belief that its venom would protect him from his enemies ("Colossal statue of King Menkaura"). The early reverence of serpents as protectors of the king demonstrated an early knowledge of the dangers of venom and poison, which went on to be major contributors to biological warfare around the world.
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