Callinicus was a Byzantine Greek architect and chemist from Heliopolis of Syria. According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Callinicus was a refugee from Syria who arrived in Byzantium in the time of Constantine IV and shared his knowledge of liquid fire with the Byzantines.
Background
Callinicus was born c. 673. According to most authorities, he was a native of Heliopolis (Baalbek) in Syria. Although, some report that Callinicus came from Heliopolis in Egypt, and it is probable that he was a Jewish refugee who was forced to flee to Constantinople.
Career
Callinicus is credited with having invented or perfected "Greek fire." A terrifying new weapon, apparently was first used successfully at the battle of Cyzicus (ca. A.D. 673), in which the Byzantines under Emperor Constantine IV defeated the attacking Saracens. The most detailed and authoritative statement, although brief, on the life and activities of Callinicus is that of Theophanes, a Greek monk who wrote about A.D. 815 in his Xpovoypatpia (Chronographia): “At this time the architect Callinicus of Heliopolis in Syria fled to the Romans and invented the sea fire, which set on fire the boats of the Arabs and burned them completely. And in this way the Romans turned them back in victory, and this the sea fire procured.”
A number of incendiary materials had been used on a limited scale in warfare before the seventh century, and the invention of Callinicus was probably a secret ingredient added to the chemical mixtures already available. This liquid or semiliquid was propelled from the siphons, or flame projectors, with which the Greek ships were fitted even before the use of Greek fire. The actual ingredients probably consisted of sulfur, pitch, petroleum, and some unknown substances. Purified saltpeter was not known in the West until the early thirteenth century and most likely was not an ingredient of the Greek fire of Callinicus.