Where elephants created so much confusion and demoralization, it was but natural that the great generals should invent mechanical devices to rout them in turn, and create disorder; and we read that Ptolemy was often successful. Yet he fully appreciated the value of the elephants; and, after meeting them in several engagements, he determined to possess an elephant army of his own. The enemy obtained their elephants from India; and, although the African elephants were not considered so well fitted for war purposes, he decided to secure his recruits from the Dark Continent. He immediately issued an edict prohibiting their slaughter, and ordered that they be captured alive. Exactly where these great creatures were obtained would be interesting to know, but Ptolemy’s historians do not tell us. Ptolemy III. has left an inscription called adulis, found in the travels of Cosmas, a traveller of the sixth century, to the effect that the elephants were obtained from Ethiopia, and the country of the Troglodytes.
PLATE XXII.
ANCIENT ELEPHANT MEDALLIONS.
The famous battle of Raphia, between Ptolemy Philopator, the fourth of the dynasty, and Antiochus the Great, in which numbers of elephants were employed, is thus described by Polybius: “The signal was sounded to engage; and the elephants, approaching first, began the combat. Among those that belonged to Ptolemy, there were some that advanced boldly against their adversaries. It was then pleasing to behold the soldiers engaged in close combat from the towers, and pushing against each other with their spears. But the beasts themselves afforded a far nobler spectacle, as they rushed together, front to front, with the greatest force and fury. For this is the manner in which they fight. Twisting their trunks together, they strive, each of them with his utmost force, to maintain his own ground, and to move his adversary from his place; and when the strongest of them has at last pushed aside the trunk of the other, and forced him to turn his flank, he then pierces him with his tusks in the same manner as bulls in fighting wound each other with their horns. But the greater part of the beasts that belonged to Ptolemy declined the combat. For this usually happens to the elephants of Afric, which are unable to support either the smell or cry of the Indian elephants. Or rather, perhaps, they are struck with terror at the view of their enormous size and strength; since even before they approach near together, they frequently turn their backs, and fly. And this it was which at this time happened. As soon, therefore, as these animals, being thus disordered by their fears, had fallen against the ranks of their own army, and forced the royal guards to break the line, Antiochus, seizing the occasion, and advancing round on the outside of the elephants, charged the cavalry, which was commanded by Polycrates, in the extremity of the left wing of Ptolemy. At the same time, also, the Grecian mercenaries, who stood within the elephants, near the phalanx, advanced with fury against the peltastæ, and routed them with little difficulty, because their ranks, likewise, were already broken by the elephants. Thus the whole left wing of the army of Ptolemy was defeated, and forced to fly.”
One hundred and fifty years after this, a successor of Antiochus employed elephants in battles against the Jews; and nearly all the monarchs who succeeded Alexander employed them in war. They were used in Syria; and Seleucus Nicator valued them so highly, that, according to Strabo, he gave Sandrocottus an entire province on the Indus for five hundred of the animals. They were stabled at Apamea, in Syria; so that elephants commanded a high price, even in these early times. Two centuries later, when Syria and various Eastern countries became tributary to Rome, the war elephant fell into disuse; and one of the last references to it in Syria is found on a coin struck in honor of Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes Dionysius, who succeeded to the throne in the two hundred and twenty-fifth era of the Seleucidæ (87 B.C.). It represents an elephant bearing a torch, after the custom of Syrian monarchs; a horn of plenty being shown behind it. ([See Plates XXI., XXII.])
CHAPTER XXIV.
WAR ELEPHANTS OF THE ROMANS AND CARTHAGINIANS.
The war elephant was a feature of the armies of the Orient many years before it was known in Italy. We have seen that the huge animal was especially effective in spreading terror among the opposing hosts, from its gigantic size and peculiar form: and nations that had never heard of, nor seen, an elephant, were so demoralized at the sight, that they often fled without giving battle; their horses and other animals, equally alarmed, completing the rout and confusion. The Romans were no exception to this; and, with all their valor and courage, they quailed before the astonishing array of monsters—for so they considered them—that King Pyrrhus of Epirus brought upon the field in the reign of Heraclear (280 B.C.). His elephant detachment was a small one, being composed of twenty animals, which bore upon their backs tall wooden towers filled with armed bowmen. The Romans soon rallied, however; but their defeat, according to Floras, was directly due to the terror inspired by the elephants. When Fabricus went to Epirus to negotiate with Pyrrhus for an exchange of prisoners, the latter endeavored to bribe him, and then to frighten him, by producing one of the largest of his elephants. But the old Roman replied on leaving, “Neither your gold yesterday, nor your beast to-day, has made any impression upon me.”
Four years later the Romans had become perfectly familiar with elephant warfare; and Curius Dentalus organized his men especially to demoralize the elephants, ordering them to attack the animals with burning torches in one hand, and sharp swords in the other. This plan was successful, and was aided by an unforeseen accident. An elephant calf accompanied its mother upon the field of battle; and, becoming wounded early in the fight, its roars so enraged its mother, and demoralized the others, that they charged, and threw the troops of Pyrrhus into complete disorder. They were finally captured by the Romans, and four led in triumph to Rome,—the first ever taken there.