HISTORICAL REVIEW Biological Warfare Plan in the 17th Century—the Siege of Candia, 1648–1669 Eleni Thalassinou, Costas Tsiamis, Effie Poulakou-Rebelakou, Angelos Hatzakis A little-known effort to conduct biological warfare oc- to have hurled corpses of plague victims into the besieged curred during the 17th century. The incident transpired city (9). During World War II, Japan conducted biological during the Venetian–Ottoman War, when the city of Can- weapons research at facilities in China. Prisoners of war dia (now Heraklion, Greece) was under siege by the Otto- were infected with several pathogens, including Y. pestis; mans (1648–1669). The data we describe, obtained from >10,000 died as a result of experimental infection or execu- the Archives of the Venetian State, are related to an op- tion after experimentation. At least 11 Chinese cities were eration organized by the Venetian Intelligence Services, which aimed at lifting the siege by infecting the Ottoman attacked with biological agents sprayed from aircraft or in- soldiers with plague by attacking them with a liquid made troduced into water supplies or food products. Y. pestis–in- from the spleens and buboes of plague victims. Although fected fleas were released from aircraft over Chinese cities the plan was perfectly organized, and the deadly mixture to initiate plague epidemics (10). We describe a plan—ul- was ready to use, the attack was ultimately never carried timately abandoned—to use plague as a biological weapon out. The conception and the detailed cynical planning of during the Venetian–Ottoman War in the 17th century. the attack on Candia illustrate a dangerous way of think- ing about the use of biological weapons and the absence Archival Sources of reservations when potential users, within their religious Our research has been based on material from the Ar- framework, cast their enemies as undeserving of humani- chives of the Venetian State (11). The sources are the tarian consideration. communications between the Inquisitors of the State, the Council of Ten, and the commander of Dalmatia. The n the course of history, plague, caused by Yersinia pes- letters cover the period from February 5, 1649, through Itis, has been responsible for at least 3 widespread pan- August 3, 1651 (i.e., February 5 and 22, 1649; April 1, demics with high mortality rates. The first, the “Justinian 21, and 29, 1649; May 9, 1649; December 16, 1650; and plague,” spread around the Mediterranean Sea and West- August 3, 1651). Although the letters were included in the ern Europe in the 6th century; the second, the so-called collections of Venetian documents in works by Lamasky Black Death, struck Europe in the 14th century; and the (12) and Brown (13), they have escaped the attention of third began in China during the middle of the 19th century medico-historical researchers. and spread throughout the world (1–3). The Black Death decimated Medieval Europe and had a major effect on the Historical Background of Venetian–Ottoman Wars continent’s socioeconomic development, culture, art, reli- The siege of Candia, 1648–1669, is the longest in the mili- gion, and politics (4,5). tary history. The city of Candia (now Heraklion, Greece) In 1346, plague was deliberately used as a biological was the capital of the Kingdom of Candia (Crete) (Regno weapon. During the siege of Caffa, a Genoese possession di Candia), which had been a Venetian possession since the in Crimea (now Feodosia, Ukraine), the attacking Mongol fall of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. forces experienced an epidemic of plague (6–8). The Mon- During the Venetian–Ottoman Wars, the island was the key gols, however, converted their misfortune into an oppor- for the supremacy of the eastern Mediterranean (14). tunity by hurling the cadavers of their deceased into the After the fall of Constantinople (1453) and the fall of city, and this action perhaps initiated the ensuing plague Rhodes, the possession of the Order of the Knights of Saint epidemic. In 1710, during the Swedish–Russian War, in the John (1522), to the Ottomans, the Republic of Venice was siege of Reval (now Tallin, Estonia), the Russians were said the ultimate protector of Christianity in the eastern Mediter- ranean. Until the siege of Candia, the 2 superpowers of that Author affiliation: Athens Medical School, University of Athens, era, Venice and the Ottoman Empire, many times crossed Greece swords for the supremacy of the Mediterranean Sea: in 1463–1479, 1499–1502, 1537, and in 1571 in the naval DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2112.130822 2148 Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 21, No. 12, December 2015 Biological Warfare Plan in 17th Century battle of Lepanto (14). In addition to the geostrategic and To the most Illustrious and most Honored Lords economic reasons, the conflicting religions were another my Masters cause of war between Venice and Ottoman Empire. At that time, under the cover of a Holy War, atrocities against the My incessant occupation in the discharge of this “unbelievers” were a common phenomenon. After so many most laborious service never makes me forget years of Holy Wars in the area, religious fanaticism was my intent and desire to procure advantage to my the first instinctive feeling in the mind of the rival armies. country. I then, considering the perilous state During the first year of a new war (1644), the Ottoman of the kingdom of Candia, first treacherously forces landed in Crete, and the Venetians asked for help invaded, and now openly occupied by the Turks, from the Pope and other European nations. However, Eu- the pre-eminence of their forces, the copiousness rope was in the flames of the Thirty Years War (Germany, of their soldiery, the opulence of the Turkish Austria, and Spain versus Denmark, Sweden, and France). treasury, which will enable them to maintain the Because England and Holland had commercial agreements war for many years, and also being well aware with the Ottoman Empire, their leaders refused to help that, although the public spirit of Venice yields to Venice (15). In fact, the European efforts to help Candia none in courage and magnanimity, the Republic were disastrous: for example, the expeditions of King Lou- has neither forces, men, nor money, wherewith is XIV of France in 1668 and 1669. The last provveditore to resist much longer the attacks of its foes, and (governor) of Candia, Francesco Morosini, surrendered the reflecting on the impossibility to meet such a city to the Turks on September 6, 1669, after a blockade of heavy expenditure, have applied myself to a study 21 years. of the methods whereby the Turkish power might be overcome without risk of men or burden to the Inquisitori di Stato and the Idea of exchequer, and how the kingdom of Candia might Biological Warfare be recovered; for, after God, our hope to reacquire The Inquisitori di Stato di Venezia (Inquisitors of the State it is small indeed. of Venice) had been established during 1539, after the deci- Now there is here a good subject of Venice, lately sion of the Consiglio dei Dieci (Council of Ten) to protect appointed doctor, who besides his skill in healing is the state (16). This intelligence service was one of the most also a famous distiller. His name is Michiel Angelo effective and deadly in the history of espionage. Venice Salamon. He is desirous to prove himself, what he had an impressive network of spies, and its dark history is in fact, a faithful servant of your Excellencies. was connected with political plots, torture, and assassina- I explained my wishes to him, and he availed tion attempts too numerous to count (17). himself of the presence here of the plague to distil a liquid expressed from the spleen, the buboes, Venetian Plan and carbuncles of the plague stricken; and this, On February 5, 1649, the heads of the Inquisitori, Piero when mixed with other ingredients, will have the Morosini, Piero Querini, and Geronimo Giustiniani, re- power wherever it is scattered to slay any number ceived a top-secret letter from Zara (now Zadar, Croatia), of persons, for it is the quintessence of plague I a Venetian possession on the Dalmatian Coast. In it, the considered that if this quintessence of plague were Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia et Albania, Lunardo sown in the enemies’ camps at Retimo, Cannea, Foscolo, proposed a plan to end the siege of Candia by and San Todero, and if it operates as Dr. Michiel infecting the Ottoman forces with a poisonous liquid that assures me it will, this would greatly assist us to he described as “the quintessence of the plague.” The recover the kingdom of Candia. plan was likely to be undetected and successful because plague outbreaks occurred frequently on the island. In I accordingly determined not to lose the fact, since the Black Death pandemic began devastating opportunity to have a vase of the poison prepared, Europe, 20 outbreaks had occurred on Crete from 1348 and this jar shall be kept, with all due precautions, through 1645 (18,19). for the service of your Excellencies. I believe, Because an outbreak that occurred only in the Otto- however, that some ruse must be adopted to entice man camp around the city of Candia would be suspicious, the Turks into the trap, and would suggest that we Foscolo proposed an alternative “perfect plan”—a massive should make use of the Albanian fez, or some other plague attack against all the Ottoman camps in different cloth goods, which the Turks are accustomed to places of the island, which would look like a real epidemic buy, so that the poison may pass through as many of large scale.