by Mac Pike

Created on: January 19, 2012

War Elephants, the phrase conjures an image of Hannibal’s army debauching from Alpine passes to spread terror among the Roman people and wreak havoc upon her armies. One of the first thing anyone learns - and sometimes the only thing - about Hannibal and his Roman invasion is that fighting elephants were somehow brought through the mountains and spearheaded the Carthaginian war machine, arriving via a

route much debated to this day and which will almost certainly never be exactly determined. 

Or, the image may come to mind of vast Indian armies hurling ranks and ranks of armored, fortress carrying elephants at one another, or at foreign invaders on plains ideally suited for their deployment. 

There is a certain amount of truth to both of these scenarios, Hannibal indeed left Spain with 37 war elephants, and arrived in Italy with at least 27 according to best sources. These saw action During Hannibal’s early victories at Tesino, Trebbia and Lake Trasimeno but attrition took its toll and apparently but one remained when Hannibal entered Capua in 216 BC. No elephants are reported as present at Hannibal’s great victory at Cannae. 

A strong force of elephants was present at Hannibal’s last fight as a Carthaginian General on the plains of Zama in 202 BC but may actually have contributed to the Roman victory. The Romans had learned how to confuse, injure and madden the great beasts by the time of Zama, and they apparently did as much harm to Hannibal’s cause as they did to the Romans. Fire weapons, clouds of stinging, blinding arrows and determined spear work, as well the tactic of opening lanes for the great beasts to charge through greatly lessened the value of elephants on the battlefield.

Elephants were probably first tamed in India over 4000 years ago and used as heavy lifters and transport, much as they are today. The Asian or Indian elephants, smaller creatures than the enormous bush elephants of sub-Saharan Africa were first recorded as being used in battle, again in India, at about 500 BC. Their use for these purposes spread through South East Asia and the Middle East, Persia, Africa and eventually to most of the countries bordering the Mediterranean. 

Hannibal made war elephants famous but the Romans had seen them as early as 280 BC when King Pyrrhus, he whose name has become linked with the term “Pyrrhic victory” used them is his victorious battles with the legions at Heraclea and Asculum. 

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