Carthaginian War Elephantby The Creative Assembly (Copyright). Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. He issued punch-marked silver coins with religious symbols featuring an elephant and a bull, the sun and a tree on a hill, as well as the chakra (a “disc” referring to a Tantric nerve nexus). Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. However, the animals often turn on their own ranks trampling indiscriminately whoever comes in their way. Oppen, Branko V. "Elephants in Hellenistic History & Art." "An Egyptian Interpretation of Alexander’s Elephant Headdress. In the search for ever more impressive and lethal weapons to shock the enemy and bring total victory the armies of ancient Greece, Carthage, and even sometimes Rome turned to the elephant. Tossing, ripping, and crushing the enemy, elephants were used to cause havoc with any defensive fieldworks and fortifications too, where they knocked down walls with their foreheads or pulled them down with their trunks. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 16 Mar 2016. Starting the battle in a simple line in front of their own troops they could cause undisciplined and poorly trained cavalry lines to scatter in panic. More at ivory. Please support Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation. During the eastern campaign of Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE), Greek and Macedonian soldiers first encountered elephants in Assyria, at the Battle of Gaugamela (331 BCE), where they were, however, apparently not deployed. The use of elephants in warfare had spread to Persia in earlier centuries from India where elephants had been used for millennia. Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. - Animal Life in the Scriptures Ancient Elephant. When Ptolemy (c. 367-282 BCE), the appointed governor of Egypt, transferred said funerary cortege to Memphis, the Macedonian regent Perdiccas retaliated by invading Egypt with the royal army, including elephants (c. 321/0 BCE). When the sun god Helius (Amun-Ra) appeared to him in a dream expressing his anger, Ptolemy set up four bronze elephants as votives to appease the god. ends in 10 days. Despite the cost and difficulties, and because in antiquity the evolution in weaponry was extremely slow, the attraction of such large animals trampling all over the enemy remained. As the ancient historian Ammianus Marcellinus put it, "the human mind can conceive nothing more terrible than their noise and huge bodies" (Anglim, 132). We have also been recommended for educational use by the following publications: Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization registered in Canada. With a reasonably well-trained army (around 30,000) he could only field 20 elephants, which underpins a vital aspect concerning them. I will answer this question from an Indian perspective. The third attribute, the aegis belonged to Zeus, who presented it to Athena, who in turn is commonly depicted wearing the fleece. 24 Dec 2020. He, therefore, embodies aspects of both Heracles and Dionysus, and Alexander was also believed to be descended from Dionysus, through Deianira, the wife of Heracles. The Romans seem to have been largely unimpressed with the use of elephants and employed them only rarely and in small numbers, usually supplied via Numidia. The Ancient History Encyclopedia logo is a registered EU trademark. The snakes might allude to the legend that Olympias was impregnated by a god in the form of a snake. Sure, everyone is familiar with the North American Mastodon and the Woolly Mammoth—but how much do you know about the ancestral pachyderms of the Mesozoic Era, some of which predated modern elephants by tens of millions of years? An elephant charging into a group of soldiers or horses could decimate a formation. Greek authors continued to associate elephants with legends and fabulous monsters – that is, for our modern mind non-existing figments of ancient imagination. In 275 BCE, in a battle known as the ‘Elephant Victory’, Antigonus Gonatas, although outnumbered, used 16 elephants to terrify an army of Gauls into retreat. Early use of elephants in battle by Alexander’s successors involved only a rider (mahout) and perhaps a spearman. Ancient History Encyclopedia Limited is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Allegedly the cognomen of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) derived from the Moorish word for “elephant” (caesai), rather than from caesius or caeruleus (pertaining to the color of the sky). The first use of elephants by humans began about 4,000 years ago in India. Thank you! Thank you! The rider was crucial as he had trained the animal for years and it would obey only his commands. The Hellenistic Period is a part of the Ancient Period for the... After securing the eastern Mediterranean seaboard and Egypt, Alexander... Monsters of Military Might: Elephants in Hellenistic History and Art, The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World, Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike, Alonso Troncoso, V. "The Diadochi and the Zoology of Kingship: The Elephants. (1-Macc. When Alexander died, his funeral carriage was decorated among many other things with a tablet of Indian elephants driven by mahouts, followed by Macedonian troops. John M. Kistler, War Elephants (London, 2006) Adrienne Mayor, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (New York, 2003) H. H. Scullard, The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World (London, 1974) Ancient History Encyclopedia. The Asian elephant became known in Europe following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE and contact with the Mauryan Empire of India. The religious association of the elephant with victory and power is therefore obvious. Last modified March 16, 2016. Aug., Ael. Branko van Oppen is an exhibition curator and independent scholar specialized in Ptolemaic queenship as well as Hellenistic art and ideology. Fame is accompanied by Plato and Aristotle, Alexander, and Charlemagne. It was typically occupied by up to four javelin or missile throwers. See more ideas about war elephant, ancient warfare, ancient war. Detail of Roman Sarcophagus with an Elephantby Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA). This beast lies by the papyrus, reed and sedge, it strikes the river to pour water in its mouth and does not fear the flood. Alexander’s posthumous portraiture was first devised under Ptolemy in Egypt and subsequently imitated by Lysimachus, Seleucus, and Ceraunus. "Elephants were considered the tanks of the time, until eventually the Romans figured out how to defeat war elephants," in later times, said study co-author Alfred Roca, an animal scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Please help us create teaching materials on Mesopotamia (including several complete lessons with worksheets, activities, answers, essay questions, and more), which will be free to download for teachers all over the world. In the search for ever more impressive and lethal weapons to shock the enemy and bring total victory the armies of ancient Greece, Carthage, and even sometimes Rome turned to the elephant. Tossing, ripping, and crushing the enemy, elephants were used to cause havoc with any defensive fieldworks and fortifications too. While the Romans did eventually adopt them, and used them occasionally after the Punic wars, especially during the conquest of Greece, they fell out of use by the time of Claudius, after which they were generally used for the purpose of demoralizing enemies instead of being used for tactical purposes. Elephants were thought of as fierce and frightful monsters in antiquity, very real though rarely seen until the Hellenistic period. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2020) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. Ancient History Encyclopedia. When Hannibal (247 - c. 182 BCE) moved against Rome, he crossed the Pyrenees from Spain with 37 elephants among his vast forces. Later in the 5th century BCE, Ctesias, who (unlike Herodotus) must have seen elephants himself, declared that Indians hunt the man-eating martichora (elsewhere called manticore) on elephants a paragraph before discussing griffons that protect the goldmines in the Indian mountains. Cartwright, M. (2016, March 16). Next, the ram’s horn that encircles Alexander’s temple is understood to be an attribute of Ammon, the Libyan oracular deity, whose cult lies in the desert oasis of Siwah. The Romans … Elephant & Griffonby Branko van Oppen (CC BY). Alexander’s elephant headdress is generally understood as an emblem of his victory over Porus. Nov 12, 2020 - Explore Jonah Bomgaars's board "War Elephants!" License. Diodorus related that Indian elephants were outfitted to strike terror in warfare against the invading Assyrian queen Semiramis. Starting with the association with Alexander’s Indian triumph, the exuvia (elephant’s scalp) might best be understood as an attribute of an Indian deity, such as Indra, Shiva, or Krishna. Cartwright, Mark. Suggested Reading. Notice particularly the protuberance on the elephant’s forehead which is particular to the Indian elephant. Then they obviously provided large targets for artillery fire. Due to the Roman focus on infantry and its discipline, war elephants were rarely used. The Mauryans used three riders, all archers, with … The encounter was one of the largest pitch battles of the Hellenistic period, and supposedly the only ancient battle in which African elephants fought Indian. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. After Perdiccas’ disastrous defeat about 50-60 elephants apparently fell to Ptolemy. 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