600?-700?

Syrian Architect and Inventor

Callinicus (also spelled Kallinikos) was born in the Syrian city of Heliopolis sometime in the seventh century. Little is known regarding his life, and if it were not for one significant invention, he would have been just one of the billions of forgotten people in history. Callinicus, an architect by trade, is credited with the invention of Greek fire. This military weapon was a highly combustible material that, once explosively expelled from a cannon-like barrel onto enemy troops, ships, or buildings, was nearly impossible to extinguish. It was a secret weapon of the Byzantine Greeks and was instrumental in many of their military conquests.

Around the time Callinicus was born, there was significant hostility between the Arab and Byzantine empires. This would eventually spill over to his hometown of Heliopolis in Syria, where Callinicus was an architect and inventor...