The Tactical Handling of the Elephant

R. F. Glover

doi:10.1017/S0017383500009748

The Tactical Handling of the Elephant

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009

R. F. Glover

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Most people to-day are familiar with the elephant at the Zoo, and it is curious to recall that this vast, flabby-looking creature was first seen by Western men as a terrible and well-nigh irresistible weapon of war. When Alexander's men refused to follow him beyond the river Hyphasis in 326 b.c., one of the chief causes of their fear was a rumour that the people on the other side owned a squadron of ‘particularly large and courageous elephants’—six thousand of them, says Plutarch: and the Macedonians had recently seen all they wanted of elephants in their battle against Porus on the river Hydaspes. They had done their best against them, and indeed had won the day; but it had been a grim business. ‘The elephants’, we are told, ‘employed their massive bulk and their great strength in terrifying fashion; some men perished when they were trampled under foot, weapons and all, and their bones crushed to pieces; others were caught up in the elephants' trunks, lifted high in the air and dashed back to earth—and came to a shocking death. And many men were instantly killed on being gored by the beasts' tusks, and pierced clean through the body.’

Type: Research Article
Information: Greece & Rome , Volume 17 , Issue 49 , January 1948 , pp. 1 - 11

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0017383500009748 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1948

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References

^{Page 1 note 1} Arrian, , Anabasis v. 25. 1.Google Scholar

^{Page 1 note 2} Alexander 62. 2.

^{Page 1 note 3} Diodorus xvii. 88.

^{Page 1 note 4} Ibid. xviii. 33–5.

^{Page 1 note 5} Ibid. xix. 14, 15, 27–30, 39–44.

^{Page 1 note 6} Ibid. 15.

^{Page 2 note 1} Diodorus xix. 39. This enterprise and its failure provide a good example of bad Security of Information—a very common weakness in ancient warfare.

^{Page 2 note 2} Cf. ibid. 82–4, xx. 73.

^{Page 2 note 3} Plutarch (Demetrius 28) says 400, Diodorus (xx. 113) 480.

^{Page 2 note 4} Appian, , Syr. 55Google Scholar; Plutarch, , Alexander 62. 2.Google Scholar

^{Page 2 note 5} Cf. Cambridge Ancient History, vi, p. 504.

^{Page 2 note 6} Pliny, , Nat. Hist. viii. 6. 16.Google Scholar

^{Page 2 note 7} Cf. Lucretius v. 1302.

^{Page 2 note 8} See Strabo viii. 17. 145, xvi. 4. 7, and elsewhere. For the ancient belief that the African elephant was less effective in war than the Indian see Polybius v. 84; Appian, , Syr. 31Google Scholar; Pliny, op. cit. viii. 9. 27; Livy xxxvii. 39. 13.

^{Page 2 note 9} Nat. Hist. viii. 8. 24.

^{Page 2 note 10} Polybius i. 32. 9.

^{Page 2 note 11} Ibid. 38. 2 and elsewhere.

^{Page 2 note 12} Ibid. iii. 14.

^{Page 2 note 13} Ibid. 53 and Livy xxi. 28.

^{Page 2 note 14} Polybius xi. 11–12: for Antiochus’ use of them see v. 53, 82–6.

^{Page 3 note 1} I Maccabees i. 17, vi. 34–7, and elsewhere.

^{Page 3 note 2} First at Panormus, 250 b.c. (Polybius i. 40. 15 and Pliny, , Nat. Hist. viii. 6. 16Google Scholar).

^{Page 3 note 3} Livy xxxi. 36. 4.

^{Page 3 note 4} Ibid. xliv. 5.

^{Page 3 note 5} Appian, , Civ. ii. 96.Google Scholar

^{Page 3 note 6} sine usu, Livy xliv. 41.

^{Page 3 note 7} Sixth edition (1811), p. 192.

^{Page 3 note 8} Pliny, , Nat. Hist. viii. 1 and 7. 23Google Scholar: see also Aristotle, , H. A. i. 1. 33Google Scholar and 9. 46, and cf. Appian, , Syr. 46.Google Scholar

^{Page 3 note 9} Polybius i. 38 (ἐγύμναε, imperfect tense).

^{Page 3 note 10} I Maccabees vi. 34.

^{Page 4 note 1} Livy xxxvii. 40. 4, and cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 9. 27. Livy here says that the crew consisted of four men in addition to the driver. The elephant's maximum load being some 12–14 cwt., we may dismiss the account in 1 Maccabees vi. 37: ‘upon every one two and thirty strong men, beside the Indian that ruled him’. (For this observation I am grateful to Professor Richard Glover of the University of Manitoba.)

^{Page 4 note 2} A somewhat fanciful representation of a stationary ‘elephant and castle’ may be seen on a fifteenth-century carved throne in Ripon Cathedral.

^{Page 4 note 3} Plutarch, , Pyrrhus 21. 7.Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 4} Ibid. 25. 3.

^{Page 4 note 5} Polybius i. 39. 11–12.

^{Page 4 note 6} Ibid. 74. 3 and 77. 2; iii. 53. 8; Livy xxxiii. 9. 7; Appian, , Iberica 46.Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 7} Hamilcar made good propaganda use of the elephant's morale-value by throwing to the elephants the prisoners he captured in the Libyan War (Polybius i. 84. 8).

^{Page 4 note 8} Arrian, , Anabasis v. 10. 2.Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 9} He had possibly discovered this characteristic of the elephant from those already in his possession. See ibid. iii. 15. 4–6 and v. 5. 5.

^{Page 4 note 10} Plutarch, , Pyrrhus 17. 3.Google Scholar

^{Page 5 note 1} Livy xxi. 55. 7: so Appian, , Hannib. 7Google Scholar; Polybius iii. 74. 2. For a further instance cf. Appian, , Iberica 46.Google Scholar

^{Page 5 note 2} Cf. Pliny, , Nat. Hist. viii. 9. 27.Google Scholar

^{Page 5 note 3} The crews ‘put up a good show’ at the battle of Raphia (Polybius v. 84. 2).

^{Page 5 note 4} Plutarch, , Pompey 52Google Scholar (speaking here of elephant-fights in the arena).

^{Page 5 note 5} v. 84. 3–5.

^{Page 5 note 6} Arrian, , Anabasis v. 15. 5.Google Scholar

^{Page 5 note 7} Plutarch, , Pyrrhus 21. 5–6.Google Scholar

^{Page 5 note 8} Polybius i. 30. 8 and 32. 4. See also xi. 20. 1.

^{Page 5 note 9} Ibid. i. 39. 11–12.

^{Page 5 note 10} Ibid. 77. 2.

^{Page 6 note 1} Xanthippus (Polybius i. 33. 6) and perhaps Sulpicius (Livy xxxi. 36. 4) are possible exceptions.

^{Page 6 note 2} Porus stationed his elephants 100 feet apart (Arrian, , Anabasis v. 15. 5Google Scholar) and Antiochus at Magnesia used them in his actual phalanx in detachments of two elephants (Livy xxxvii. 40. 2 and Appian, , Syr. 32Google Scholar). Other instances may be seen in Diodorus xix. 27, 28, 40, 82; Plutarch, , Pyrrhus 21. 6Google Scholar; Polybius v. 53. 4; xv. 11. 1; xvi. 18. 7; Appian, , Punica 40.Google Scholar

^{Page 6 note 3} Appian, , Syr. 32.Google Scholar Cf. Diodorus xvii. 87.

^{Page 6 note 4} Polybius xvi. 19. 3.

^{Page 6 note 5} ‘Elephanto beluarum nulla prudentior’, Cicero, N. D. i. 35. 97. Cf. Pliny, , Nat. Hist. viii. 9. 27Google Scholar, ‘vulneratique et territi retro semper cedunt’, and similarly viii. 1. 1; 3; 5. 9.

^{Page 6 note 6} Job xli. 26.

^{Page 6 note 7} Polybius xviii. 29. 2–4.

^{Page 7 note 1} Nat. Hist. viii. 7. 18.

^{Page 7 note 2} Plutarch, , Pyrrhus 25. 5.Google Scholar

^{Page 7 note 3} Appian, , Hannib. 7.Google Scholar

^{Page 7 note 4} Livy xxi. 55. 10–11.

^{Page 7 note 5} Ibid. xxxvii. 42. 5.

^{Page 7 note 6} I Maccabees vi. 43–6.

^{Page 7 note 7} Plutarch, , Pyrrhus 27. 3.Google Scholar

^{Page 7 note 8} Polybius i. 40. 13 and Frontinus, , Strat. ii. 5. 4.Google Scholar

^{Page 8 note 1} Diodorus xix. 83–4. He curiously attributes this defeat to the effect of the hard going on the elephants’ soft feet.

^{Page 8 note 2} ne interluceret acies, Frontinus, op. cit. ii. 3. 16.

^{Page 8 note 3} Ibid. This deployment is as clearly described by Polybius at xv. 9.

^{Page 8 note 4} Punica 41.

^{Page 8 note 5} Cf. Polybius xi. 24. 1.

^{Page 8 note 6} Ibid. xv. 16. 2.

^{Page 9 note 1} H.A. ix. 1. 30.

^{Page 9 note 2} Diodorus xviii. 34.

^{Page 9 note 3} Appian, , Iberica 46.Google Scholar

^{Page 9 note 4} Plutarch, , Pyrrhus 32–3.Google Scholar

^{Page 9 note 5} Less exciting, but ingenious, was Antigonus’ use of elephants as break-waters for his unsuccessful attempt to cross the Nile in 321 b.c. He seems to have stationed them in midstream to break the force of the current while men and horses crossed (Diodorus xviii. 35).

^{Page 9 note 6} H. A. viii. 9.

^{Page 10 note 1} Cf. Diodorus xx. 73.

^{Page 10 note 2} Livy xxi. 28. 11.

^{Page 10 note 3} H. A. ix. 46.

^{Page 10 note 4} Nor excessive heat, according to a recent Press report of a Zoo elephant collapsing under a load of children and the afternoon sun.

^{Page 10 note 5} Pliny, , Nat. Hist. viii. 6. 16Google Scholar and Frontinus, , Strat. i. 7. 1.Google Scholar

^{Page 10 note 6} Livy xxi. 28; Polybius iii. 46.

^{Page 10 note 7} Ibid. 55. 8.

^{Page 10 note 8} Livy xliv. 5.

^{Page 10 note 9} Polybius xxix. 17. 2. Comparison with Livy xliv. 41. 4 suggests that Polybius may actually be speaking of elephants in this fragment.

^{Page 11 note 1} Juvenal xii. 102–10, supported by inscriptions. See Juvenal, ed. Duff (1898), p. 390.

^{Page 11 note 2} Appian, , Iberica 46.Google Scholar

^{Page 11 note 3} Livy xxvii. 51.

^{Page 11 note 4} See especially Polybius i. 41.

^{Page 11 note 5} In a different sense from that intended by Horace at Ep. ii. 1. 196.

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