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Germ Warfare Deep in Antiquity.
Did the ancients use biological weapons?
Modern apprehensions over chemical and biological weapons have recently achieved saturation media coverage. We tend to think of this as a typically modern
method of warfare, but here you would be deeply mistaken. In fact there is evidence tracing back knowledge of germ warfare into deepest antiquity.
Controversy
Some time ago an article by Adrienne Mayor in the Quarterly Journal of Military History maintains that passages from ancient mythological texts are a a sure description of prehistoric germ warfare. She writes that "legends of Heracles's Hydra-venom arrows express the complex moral issues that surrounded real biological warfare in the ancient world, setting in motion a controversy that continues to this day." Mayors adds: " Numerous ancient historians provide strong evidence that biological weapons were not only contemplated but actually used."
Deadly concoction.
The article goes on to describe how ancient poison darts relied on a deadly concoction of snake venom mixed with human blood and animal dung. The mixture was
then allowed to putrify before use. These crude methods proved quite deadly. Victims were stricken by shock and paralysis, followed by gangrene a day or so later. Death would be slow and
agonising.
The ancient historian Diodorus Siculus describes another lethal potion described as the "drug of mortal effect." This apparently induced numbness and
convulsions, followed by gangrene and death.
To go direct to Adrienne Mayor’s home page on the
topic please click on the link below.
Ancient Germ Warfare.
Latest Publication.
Also on a similar topic Adrienne Mayor has just published another book entitled: Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical
Warfare in the Ancient World. This concerns the mythic origins and the historical practice of biological and chemical warfare in antiquity and is published in the US by Overlook Press
and in Great Britain by Duckworth.
Anyone wishing to purchase a copy should click on the link below.
Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs:
A deeper mystery - Anthrax in prehistory.
In his book entitled Prehistoric Germ Warfare author Robin Collyns claims that many of our most virulent viruses are in fact the remnants of a biological
war that was fought out many thousands of years ago. He claims that the disease anthrax is one example of this.
Anthrax is one of the most ancient diseases known to man and is caused by bacteria that affect warm blooded animals including humans. It can be caught by
drinking infected water, or more interestingly from contaminated soil where the anthrax organism can survive for many years.
Terrible consequences.
From a study of ancient records Collyns maintains that the disease is not as potent as it once was. This leaves him to suppose that it has become weakened with
age, after first being used as a biological weapon. Collyns makes a similar analogy with several other of the 20th century's most virulent viruses. He comments: "despite the terrible
consequences from some of these diseases today, they are not as virulent as they once were." Adds Collyns: " One year of research into the subject of germ warfare positively
indicated to me that in antiquity Cholera was one of the more deadly artificially cultured warfare diseases...."
For more on the hazards of
biological doomsday see our special feature Biocatastrophe.
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Special note
Some chapters of the first part of the book have been adapted from material previously
available on this site. This material constitutes only a very small portion of the total text of the book, and has also been extensively revised. Moreover, this source material is
no longer available on-line.
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