ABSTRACT
In 678, Constantinople was in extremis. For the fifth consecutive year, an Arab fleet, raised and dispatched by the great Caliph Muawija and based at the captured peninsula of Cyzicus, just south of Constantinople, was combining with an army before the European walls of the city to besiege the Byzantine capital. The term "Greek fire" was applied to the weapon by Crusaders from the West, but by then the original weapon of Kallinikos had long since disappeared. Technology may be defined as purposeful, human manipulation of the material world. It consists of four components: matter, power, a tool or machine, and technique. Succession to the golden throne was chaotic throughout most of the five hundred years during which the secret was supposedly maintained. Like the Chinese, the Byzantines believed that god had anointed whoever occupied the throne, regardless of how they came to it.
