This is well worth the read. The elephant
as a war machine did not survive into the Roman Era mostly because they had an
effective fighting machine in the Legion.
Yet in an era of partially trained levies which is what Rome defeated to
gain its empire, a well-trained heavy shock battle group would dominate the
battle field.
Yet it just as obviously continued in service in India were the problem
of levies was serious. Thus our
inclination to dismiss the elephant is clearly misplaced for the same reason
that it is possible to dismiss a tank on the basis of vulnerability to an
individual with a Molotov cocktail or an improvised explosive device. That is erroneous for the exact same reason.
You use this mobile armored strongpoint in conjunction with assaulting
infantry. Unless the opposing infantry
is extremely well trained, they must break.
Obviously Alexander and the Legion had that part of it down. They were the exceptions. Can you imagine armored elephants charging a
phalanx of armored knights?
The real problem is the same with tanks.
Roads or their lack. The tail is
simply too resource heavy without them. Infantry
merely pulls into rough terrain and stays away until it is ready to fight.
Without elephants, the
ancient Library of Alexandria might not have existed. Every war has, as a
byproduct, cultural and technological innovation: in our world, the US Civil
War led to medical advancements and the Cold War put us in space. In the
classical era, it was the race to build elephant armies that changed the world.
By 275 BCE, Alexandria
was the largest, most beautiful city in the world. Its buildings were made of
limestone and marble, imported from places worlds away. Its relatively
temperate climate meant that flowers were almost always in bloom, impressing
foreigners both from warmer and cooler climes. Scholars from around the world
came to study and work at the Museum and Library. Life in the city was good.
But it wasn't always
that way.
Just seven years
earlier, when Ptolemy Philadelphos (second of the rulers of the Ptolemaic
dynasty) took the throne, Alexandria was but another city on the Mediterranean.
In less than one hundred years, it went from a small seaside town founded by
Alexander the Great to the city you learned about in your high school world
history classes, with its famous lighthouse and library. All because of
elephants.
Animal
War Machines
Alexander the Great
first came across the impressive creatures while invading the Persian Empire.
It was 331 BCE, at what is now called the Battle of Gaugamela, where Darius,
king of Persia, faced down the invaders with a phalanx of fifteen elephants. In
the book The Medici Giraffe,
historian Marina Belozerskaya writes, "[f]lapping their ears, trumpeting,
and stomping the ground with their treelike feet, the giant beasts were
terrifying to the uninitiated. They threw soldiers and horses into panic,
trampled them underfoot, and wreaked havoc on the battlefield." While
Alexander won the battle, his interaction with those magnificent creatures
would forever change him. He realized the tactical value that elephant warriors
held, and began to assemble his own elephantine army, starting with the
defeated Darius's fifteen animals.
Some five years later,
Alexander's army found itself in India readying for battle with Porus, king of
India's western region, and his one hundred elephants, their tusks adorned with
body-piercing metal tips. Porus had turned elephants into battering rams and
attached lances to their faces. It is no wonder that Belozerskaya describes the
trumpeting of Porus's elephantine army as "blood-chilling." As
before, Alexander eventually prevailed, but only barely. His army gave up after
their deadly encounter with the ivory-bearing war-machines. With an army unwilling
to fight, Alexander was forced to retreat. He died soon thereafter.
Elephants themselves
didn't guarantee triumph, as Alexander had himself proved. "Superior
strategy and command proved more decisive," writes Belozerskaya. Still,
the appearance of
power was important. Indeed, Alexander never managed to turn his two hundred
elephants into a functional faction of his army. His campaign was so fast
moving that he couldn't train the animals he rapidly acquired, all Asian
elephants, Elephas maximus,
originating from India. Instead, the elephants were mainly used for
transporting equipment, and to stand before his throne room as a symbol of
power.
Upon his death,
Alexander's generals carved up the empire, splitting it amongst themselves.
Seleukos took northern Syria, most of Asia Minor, Persia, and Mesopotamia. He
also got most of the elephants. Since he controlled the route to India, from
whence all war elephants came, he could prevent his enemies from amassing their
own elephant armies. He got an additional 500 elephants in exchange for
returning some land to Indian rulers. It was not long before he became known as
"Master of the Elephants," creatures which soon adorned the coins
minted in his kingdom, stamped opposite his own portrait.
Thanks to Alexander,
and to Seleukos, the military-minded began to gauge their enemies' strength, as
well as their own, by the number of elephants they commanded. It was an ancient,
escalating arms race, with elephants used more for threat than as actual tools
of war.
It was a problem for
Ptolemy. After Alexander's death, Ptolemy gained control of Egypt, and he
quickly added Cyprus and part of Libya to his kingdom. Both he and Seleukos
claimed southern Syria for themselves, which was the final stop on trade routes
from the Far East, and a source of precious gems, spices, and more. It was also
home to the famous cedars of Lebanon, wood that was preferred for building
ships and temples because it grew so straight. But Seleukos's deal with the
Indians prevented Ptolemy from acquiring more elephants than he already had. In
this ancient arms race, Ptolemy found himself at a loss. He was a clever
strategist, though, and managed to retain his territory long enough to pass it
on to his son, Ptolemy Philadelphos.
Elephants
for an Empire
When Philadelphos
became king, southern Syria was still disputed, claimed also by Antiochos, son
of Seleukos. Like his father, Antiochos retained a monopoly on Asian elephants.
Like his father, Philadelphos's army suffered a lack of the animal war
machines. But Philadelphos was highly educated, and having become familiar with
the writings of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, he knew of there were
supposed to be other elephants, farther south in Africa.
Philadelphos's
explorers eventually discovered African elephants, Loxodonta africana, along with a group of local Africans who
knew how to capture and tame them, in the kingdom of Meroe.
Meroe, in modern-day
Sudan, was the transfer point along the trade routes that connected Africa and
Arabia, meaning that salt, copper, iron, gold, wood, ivory, and valuable wildlife
all came through the city. An agreement with Eramenes, king of Meroe, would
prove useful to Philadelphos, and not just for elephants, but for access to
those trade routes. For his part, Eramenes wanted access to trade with the
Mediterranean. The two men, both shrewd leaders, struck a deal.
It was impossible to
transport the elephants up the Nile, so Philadelphos decided that they'd return
by way of the Red Sea. But the sea is shallow and rocky, and elephants are
heavy. Shipwrecks were common. Philadelphos hired naval engineers to invent
special sailboats calledelephantagoi,
meaning "elephant drivers," that could get the job done.
Those that survived
the 8-day voyage without sinking would land at Berenike, a port city that
Philadelphos built to facilitate his elephant transfer. Along with elephants,
the port also received ivory, tortoiseshell, rhinoceros horn, spices,
frankincense, myrrh, and human slaves. It was also the place where Indian
trading partners sent their wares by sea: diamonds, sapphires, pearls,
turquoise, cotton, silk, sugar, and pepper. And ointments, perfumes, and
cosmetics. Antiochos may have retained control over the terrestrial trade
routes with India, but suddenly Philadelphos could now get there by sea.
Philadelphos hired archers to protect his ships from pirates in the waters off
the Horn of Africa.
SEXPAND
Having established
trade with India, Philadelphos sent emissaries to King Asoka, grandson of the
Rajah who first struck that deal with Seleukos, some decades earlier. He didn't
need elephants, but what he did need were folks who knew how to train them. Anymahouts that Ptolemy had
inherited from his father were likely very old by now, if alive at all. It is
safe to assume that Asoka gave Philadelphos the mahouts he desired. Otherwise, he never would have been
able to safely transport so many from Meroe to Egypt and on to battle in Syria.
From Berenike, the
elephants and their handlers had to walk 12 days to Coptos, a city on the Nile.
Philadelphos had his soldiers clear tracks, dig wells, and build shade
structures along the route. Watering stations were built at twenty-mile
intervals. From Coptos, the elephants were loaded onto barges and shipped north
to Memphis, where they could await their dispatch. To aid the elephant
caravans, Philadelphos also imported the dromedary camel, native to the Arabian
Peninsula. The camels, used to walking on hot desert sand, were better equipped
to carry the material goods from Berenike to Coptos.
An
Elephantine Arms Race
In the winter of 274
BCE, the entire city of Alexandria celebrated a festival called the Ptolemaia, which lasted several
weeks. The festival was meant to be a show-and-tell for the newly enriched
city, complete with music, theater, food, and drink. The biggest spectacle was
a parading re-enactment of Dionysus's return from battle in India. A giant
statue of the Greek god atop an artificial 18-foot-tall elephant was followed
by twenty-four chariots, each drawn by four live elephants. It was not just a
celebration; it was a show of force. By parading almost one hundred elephants
through the city, Philadelphos was flexing his military might. It was clear to
see that the balance of power in the classical world was shifting.
In the end, it wasn't
the elephants themselves that mattered to history, it was the pursuit of those
elephants. It was Philadelphos's unending drive to acquire an elephant army
that built Alexandria into the city it was, that led to the establishment of
one of the most important civilizations in ancient history.
It's a lot like the
modern space race. It may have been borne out of post-war politics, but it
spawned the invention of artificial satellites, and the launching of unmanned
probes to study the Moon, Venus, and Mars. It resulted in advances made in
human spaceflight both in low-earth orbit and to the Moon. The space race
spurred increased spending on scientific research and for education. The modern
environmental movement also grew directly out of early spaceflight thanks to
color photos of our pale blue dot taken by astronauts.
SEXPAND
Elephants were still used in WWI. Here, an
elephant pulls some heavy equipment in Sheffield, England. (Source)
Arms races of all
kinds tend to have as byproducts technological, cultural, and diplomatic
innovation. Because he was so committed to his elephants, Philadelphos
developed new trade routes and forged diplomatic ties that he used to shore up
his own territories. He built entire cities from the ground up. The elephant
arms race also spurred him toward technological innovation, such as the
invention of a new class of transport ship. The wealth and prosperity that he
enjoyed because of those trade routes – developed initially for elephants! –
would allow Alexandria to become known as a place of education, of mental
pursuits, the location of the greatest library in history. The sparking jewel
of the Mediterranean may never have achieved the glory it had if not for the
lumbering pachyderms.
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