Boiling Oil

The passive protection of walls was never enough to keep out attackers. Defenders began experimenting with other ways to repel invading enemy forces, and one such method was the use of boiling oil. The Roman army encountered it at the siege of Jotapata. The historian Josephus described the effect the oil had on the Roman soldiers, "the oil did easily run down the whole body from head to foot, under their armour, and fed upon their flesh like flame itself."