Hannibals elephants

[Nagelfar]

It is a fact that Hannibal brought with him elephants across the Alps. Now, not being familiar with ancient warfare, I guess elephants were not roaming around in Spain at the time.

 

So where did Hannibal get his elephants? Having skimmed the topic of elephants on this forum it seems they were useful against less developed armies, so perhaps the elephants were regularly employed in the Spain? Did Hannibal breed elephants, or did he get them from Carthage before his Italian campaign?

 

Moving 35 (?) elephants from Africa must have been a huge undertaking.

[caldrail]

Hannibal got his elephants from Africa, including Carthage. There were still such animals roaming around the northern coastal areas and the deserts weren't quite so dry back then. No, he didn't breed them. Some were bred by animal handlers but most I suspect were captured from the wild. Regularly employed in Spain? Probably, but in small numbers if so. I wouldn't think these animals were kept in a standing army so they would have been taken on strength as required, they were just too expensive to keep in peacetime, and I suspect there was little demand for beasts of burden this big. You are spot on about moving elephants by sea. Not for the faint hearted. Elelphants do panic sometimes and its believed a number of roman ships were lost carrying elephants to the games. Hannibal must have faced the same problems. A ship might carry two or three and remember the considerable forage and water that such large animals require. In fact, Hannibal lost most of his elephants before they got to Italy. In particular there was a difficult river crossing where the elephants were fooled by leading them onto what appeared to be a jetty, but was in fact a series of rafts tied together. Some of these animals paniced on the crossing and swam to shore after the raft capsized and drowned many of the men on board, including the mahout. The alps were very hard on the elephants too.

[Primus Pilus]

And by the by, elephants had little impact on the war in Italy. Most of Hannibal's 37 elephants had died in harsh conditions upon traversing the Alps. Hannibal arrived in Italy with only 3 of the original 37, and these were killed at Trebbia River. They may have made quite an impression on the Gallic tribes Hannibal faced on his way to Italy, but they appear to have been more trouble then they were ultimately worth.

 

Polybius Histories book 3

[sonic]

Although Hannbal used African elephants, it should be made clear that these were the much smaller African bush elephants, not the massive elephants that we know of today. Somewhere there is a coin showing one of these elephants with a rider on its back, and they are only about half way in size between a horse and one of the African elephants of today.

 

If only I could find the picture it would really help .....

Edited June 8, 2007 by sonic

[caldrail]

Coins are not reliable for size estimations. But yes, there was a species of smaller elephant thats now extinct.

[Crastinus]

well Livy even talks about how the African elephants were smaller, atleast in comparison to the asian ones that Antiochus the Selucid king used against the Romans.

[phil sidnell]

And by the by, elephants had little impact on the war in Italy. Most of Hannibal's 37 elephants had died in harsh conditions upon traversing the Alps. Hannibal arrived in Italy with only 3 of the original 37, and these were killed at Trebbia River. They may have made quite an impression on the Gallic tribes Hannibal faced on his way to Italy, but they appear to have been more trouble then they were ultimately worth.

 

Polybius Histories book 3

 

 

Hi there. I agreed with your point in its essentials, the elephants didn't really get a chance to make much impact in Italy. However, I can't find where exactly in Polybius he says only three made it into Italy. I only have the Penguin translation to hand so perhaps it is lost in editing - could you give me chapter and verse please?

 

I was under the impression a more substantial force made it as far as the Trebia, played a fair part in the battle and then, but for one solitary animal, died from the combination of exhaustion and exposure to severe snow and rain after the battle:

 

In his description of the deployments for the Trebia, Polybius says Hannibal 'divided his force of elephants and stationed them in front of the wings of the infantry phalanx, so that the flanks were doubly protected'. (III.72) This doesn't sound like just three elephants.

 

Later, in the course of the battle, he says 'Finally both wings of Longus' infantry, which were being hard-pressed bfrom thje front by the elephants, and from the flanks by the light-armed troops, gave way and were forced back'. (III.74)

 

And later, apart from the 10,000 who fought their way clear, 'Of the remainder of the Roman army the greater part were killed by the elephants and the cavalry'.(III.74)

 

Describing Carthaginian losses he says:

 

'They were exultant at the outcome of the battle, which they regarded as a decisive success: the losses among the Spaniards and Africans were very small and most of the casualties had been suffered by the Celts [no mention at this stage of elephant casualties] - The whole army had been severely affected, however, by the pouring rain and the snowfall that followed it, with the result that all the elephants died except for one and large numbers of men and horses perished from the cold'.(III.74)

 

In Livy's account, the elephants are again divided half and half and posted on the extreme flanks beyond the cavalry (whereas in Polybius they were in front of the wings of the phalanx, with cavalry outside of them on the flanks). They played a great part in driving off the Roman cavalry 'as the horses were terrified by the sight and smell of these strange beasts they had never seen before'. After the Roman cavalry had been driven off, they attacked the Roman infantry and 'forced a way right into their line'. The Roman light infantry, (who in Polybius account had retired through the heavies after the initial skirmishes), were called up to counterattack and drive them off, with great success:

 

'The light-armed foot, specially brought in to deal with them, drove them off with their javelins, followed up, and pierced them again in the soft skin beneath their tail. Under this treatment the brutes were getting out of hand and looked like turning in against their masters [as quite often happened in other battles], so Hannibal had them removed from the centre and transferred to the left wing, against the Celtic auxiliaries [the Cenomani, the only Celtic tribe to remain loyal to Rome]'.

 

Still their contribution was not over, for Livy continues 'The auxiliaries promptly broke and fled, thus adding a fresh cause of alarm for the hard-pressed Romans'.

 

Livy concurs that it was 'rain, sleet and intolerable cold' that 'carried off many of the pack animals and nearly all the elephants'.

 

Livy, xxi, 55-56

 

 

I think then it would be fair to say that they did contribute quite a bit to the victory at Trebia, and it was lucky for the Romans that the weather did them in. Of course, this was not the first time an invader had used elephants in Italy. Pyrrhus of Epirus owed his two (proverbially costly) victories over the Romans in no small part to his elephants. In Hellenistic warfare too they were often a major factor in success (although equally often in the defeat of their own side!), and so it is not true they were only succesful against primitive or unsophisticated armies. Alexander's hardest fought battle was against Porus and his elephants.

 

 

The African elephant used may actually have been Loxodonta Africanus Cyclotis, or bush elephant, only recently identified as a seperate species. Males grow only to about 8' tall, as opposed to 13' for the savannah elephant Loxodonta Africanus[\i]

 

Phil Sidnell

[Primus Pilus]

Egads, you are quite right... I prematurely killed off the poor pachyderms before Trebbia. The bulk of them did survive into Italy, though likely in a terrible state of health. I'm not quite sure why I said 3... as none of the sources suggest that.

 

See what happens when one doesn't proof-read... I'm blaming alcohol.

[phil sidnell]

Egads, you are quite right... I prematurely killed off the poor pachyderms before Trebbia. The bulk of them did survive into Italy, though likely in a terrible state of health. I'm not quite sure why I said 3... as none of the sources suggest that.

 

See what happens when one doesn't proof-read... I'm blaming alcohol.

 

I was wondering how he put one and a half elephants on each flank.

 

Phil

[docoflove1974]

I'm blaming alcohol.

 

Don't do that...what has alcohol ever done to you???

[caldrail]

Its interesting that ancient generals persisted with the use of elephants in warfare, even though these animals are not actually temperamentally suited to it. Granted a bull elephant that loses its rag is very indimidating indeed, but then elephants are prone to panic and despite their huge advantage in size and weight they would rather charge along an empty gap than into a crowd. Horses don't like them. Size matters, even if the mahout struggles to make them do what the general insists they must.