Customer Reviews

The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World (Aspects of Greek and Roman life)

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This title has long been out of print, but it is well worth hunting down and adding to one's collection. Despite the 1974 publishing date, Scullard's writing style is not outdated, and the level of illustration is sufficient. This book is a model for how an author should go about thoroughly reviewing a specialized component of historical warfare. It presents a complete, cohesive, authoritative, and balanced picture of the subject.

Scullard's interpretations are clearly presented, but he also provides balanced analysis of other possibilities and competing theories. He also does a commendable job of attempting elephant "accounting" in the historical sources, by keeping track of elephant forces changing hands from one ruler/army to others. This lends strength to his interpretations and assumptions.

The elephant in warfare is peculiarly striking since it is both so formidable and unpredictable. Elephants were powerful weapons in their day, at times striking terror into men and horses and thereby securing victory. On other occasions elephants were easily countered and sent amok back into their own forces, resulting in catastrophic disarray for their own army. The mercurial nature of elephant warfare, their declining population in North Africa, expensive upkeep, and improved countermeasures lead to the elephant's demise as a weapon of war. All these aspects are discussed in this fine book.

This work is for those whose imaginations are captured by the battles of Hannibal, Phyrrhus, and Alexander that involved elephants, and those who want a full understanding of elephants as weapons of war. Scullard does a fine job of reviewing elephant usage of the period from Porus vs. Alexander all the way to Sassanid Persia. Within the covers one will find descriptions of elephant use by Carthage, Numidia, Ptolemaic Egypt, the Seleucids, Sassanids, Rome (via allies), and more.

The author has included numerous archaeological examples of plates, figures, and stele depicting elephants with riders and/or towers. In addition there are photographs of many coins of different eras that featured elephants. These are discussed at length in the text. The text does a fine job of reviewing literary evidence, the archaeological discoveries, and more modern knowledge of elephants to paint a plausible picture of their use in war.

Although I had a fair grasp of elephant warfare before obtaining this book, I learned some surprising things. Chief among these is that towers/turrets were apparently used on forest elephants at times. While such use is mentioned several times by primary sources and I knew of such references, other modern authors have suggested it was not possible. Scullard accepts that it was possible, and was in fact necessary in the case of the Ptolomies facing turreted Indian elephants. If there is one thing that could be added to this work to improve upon it, it would be some modern artistic depictions of elephants in battle.