War Elephants

African war elephants were important, although not widespread, weapons in ancient military history. Their main use was in charges, to trample the enemy and/or break their ranks. War elephants were exclusively male animals, because they were faster, more aggressive, and the females had a tendency to run away from other females.

African elephant taming began in the Indus valley around 4,000 years ago. Taming is not used here as a synonym of domestication. Domesticated animals, such as cows or dogs, are born in captivity and eventually subjected to selective breeding. War elephants, probably due to their bad temper, expensive feeding and slow growth rate, were, with very few exceptions, always caught in the wild and subsequently tamed for several purposes. The first species to be tamed was thus the Asian elephant, for agricultural ends. The first military application of african war elephants dates from around 1100 BC and is mentioned in several Sanskrit hymns.

The successful military use of african war elephants spread across the world. The successors to Alexander's empire, the Diadochi, used hundreds of Indian elephants in their wars. The Egyptians and the Carthaginians began taming African elephants for the same purpose, as did the Numidians and the Kushites. The animal used was the Forest elephant, specifically, the North African relict population which eventually became extinct from over exploitation. The African savannah war elephants, larger than the African forest elephant or the Asian war elephants, proved too difficult to tame for war purposes and was never widely used.

In the next centuries, further use of war elephants in Europe was mainly against the Roman Republic. Like Alexander, the Romans found a way to cope with the dangerous elephant charges. More than a century later, Julius Caesar armed his fifth legion with axes and commanded his legionaries to strike at the african war elephants legs. The legion withstood the charge and the African elephant became its symbol. Thapsus was the last significant use of war elephants in the West.

A reportedly effective anti-elephant weapon was the pig. Pliny the Elder reported that "war elephants are scared by the smallest squeal of a pig". A siege of Megara was reportedly broken when the Megarians poured oil on a herd of pigs, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's massed war elephants. The african elephants bolted in terror from the flaming squealing pigs.

There were plenty of military purposes for which african elephants could be used. As enormous animals, they could carry heavy cargoes and provided a useful means of transport. In battle, war elephants were usually deployed in the centre of the line, where they could be useful to prevent a charge or start one of their own.