Chemical Warfare History - The Siege of Doura-Europos

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fat tony

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http://www.livescience.com/13113-ancient-chemical-warfare-romans-persians.html

Almost 2,000 years ago, 19 Roman soldiers rushed into a cramped underground tunnel, prepared to defend the Roman-held Syrian city of Dura-Europos from an army of Persians digging to undermine the city's mudbrick walls. But instead of Persian soldiers, the Romans met with a wall of noxious black smoke that turned to acid in their lungs. Their crystal-pommeled swords were no match for this weapon; the Romans choked and died in moments, many with their last pay of coins still slung in purses on their belts.
Click to expand...

Picture of the remains of the 'trigger man', a Persian soldier who might have set off the device:

persian-skeleton-dura-110302.jpg


Weapons of mass destruction have been around for a very long time.

A notable weapon of mass destruction was set off during the Siege of Antwerp in 1585. This incident resulted in the deaths of ~1000 Spanish soldiers.
 
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I've been to Doura Europus, Deir ez Zor, Raqqa, Pamlyra and Aleppo where the current fighting is much worse than the ancient battles with an even more severe toll taken on their antiquities, let alone the humanity. Sad.
 
There are many wonderful, but little known antiquities in Syria. The country was not developed for tourism as the regime was very paranoid about foreign influence and perceived threats. For this reason it was very hard to get factual information or interpretation of the various sites in the country. There was often a political narrative applied to things, mostly about the invasion and defeat of the Crusades or the Zionists in one form or another.

Its very sad that places like the ancient Greco-Roman city of Palmyra have been desecrated the way they have. ISIS tortured and killed the long time custodian of antiquities there as well as blowing up the Temple of Bel and the Roman Arch. The latest incident there involved them having hostages tied to some of the ancient scalloped columns and then executing them by blowing up the columns. Syria has a long and rich cultural history which is being progressively destroyed. Few Syrians are crazed fundamentalists howling for our blood, but these are desperate times. I'm glad that I saw these places when I did. ISIS needs to be eliminated for the good of everyone, but we are now backing away from this, maybe with the hope that they will have a change of heart. Our new leader has much to learn about the realities of life, let alone running a country.

Doura-Europus is on the Euphrates River as are Deir ez Zor and Raqqa. Hard to believe that I used to hunt geese along the Euphrates flyway from Africa to Russia and used Raqqa, now the ISIS capital, as a home base. I once had to talk myself out of being presented with one of the local Muktar's young daughters as a second wife in exchange for $300 without giving offense, but that's another story.;)
 
Major $hithole now. All going down the tubes. I'm sure they will soon see the error of their ways and consult with our new PM on how to become better citizens. Sad that so many good people have to suffer and die, all on the account of the zealots.
 
My impression is that the younger Trudeau will be subordinate to a clique in his party. Hopefully, the controlling clique will not engage in things such as irrelevant and unnecessarily punitive legislation. :jerkit:

To get more back on topic, this account of the use of sulfur dioxide gas is well documented, unlike the claim that French colonial authorities used sulfur dioxide gas against Haitian rebels in the early 19th century.
 
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His controllers will be very interested in anything that distracts people from the results of their policies. E.g. irrelevant and unnecessarily punitive legislation.

Welcome to Scapegoats 'R' Us.
 
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