Customer Reviews

War Elephants

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The War Elephant book is a welcome addition to the lore of the war elephants throughout history. Generally the book documents the role and armies that used them with varying degrees of success. The strongest part of the book is the hands on knowledge about care and handling of elephants.

The weakest areas are the historical facts.

For example as one reads along, one runs into many footnoted text areas, that seem to be irrelevant, then blatant areas of speculation with no footnotes at all.

The description of the battle of the Hydaspes relates that "Arrian implies that towers were used on the elephants to protect them from Alexander's horse archers"... when Arrian states nothing about towers at all. This is a difficult area of study because we don't have a lot of information of written or precise artistic or archeological reference. However in this period what artistic information we do have points to the Indian elephants of Porus' army being ridden barebacked. This is shown on Mauryan artwork and the Alexander Medallions.

The author goes out of his way to explain the reason that Porus rode bareback, since he had superior armor, however the argument makes no sense at all.

When we get to the 2nd Macedonian war and the author states that Perseus was Philip V's half-brother, when he was in fact his son. I can't even figure out where the author could have made such a mistake, except that section is footnoted to a 1914 text.

The author really wishes to believe Polyaenus' stratagem that Caesar had a war elephant in Britain.... which is a nice story, but we cannot verify it.... it is typical in ancient history to grasp at any straw and shred of evidence and try to hammer it into relevance for a thesis.

Whether C. E. Stevens believes that Caesar had an elephant is an ok reference, however the vast majority of writers do not follow that view.

Errors like these make the history and facts difficult to believe, and generally diminish the author's premise that war elephants were much more potent in warfare than their ancient denigrators would have us believe.

Better books that I would invest in? H.H. Scullard's venerable "The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World", and, "Alexander the Great and the mystery of the elephant medallions", by Frank L. Holt

Alexander the Great and the Mystery of the Elephant Medallions (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

This is an essential read for anyone interested in the use of elephants at war. The author has looked at the use of elephants from ancient times up to modern days - he actually trained (and graduated) as a mahout during work on Oliver Stone's film of Alexander the Great. He discusses the use of elephants in great detail, and also looks at their behaviour and even their internal workings - but always in an interesting and relevant way. However, the author does have some annoying habits, particularly frequent recapitulations, mainly at the start of each (usually very short - 48 in 230 pages) chapter, rather like a History Channel documentary after every advertising break (which is quite annoying to people watching the DVD version), but sometimes even after quoting a passage from a classical author, and then repeating what has just been said! He also occasionally makes a reference to some previously unknown (by me) piece of information, but when I check the footnote, I find he's quoting from, for example, a magazine article from 1940, and not the original source. That particular reference was to the `fact' that in Roman times, Briton (as he insists on spelling Ancient Britain) was represented by the Romans as a dragon; in reference to a Roman coin showing a Roman elephant trampling on a dragon, allegedly commemorating a Roman invasion / conquest. However, despite all that, it is still a worthwhile read.

War Elephants is the fascinating story of how elephants have fought in human armies for more than three thousand years. From elephants that battled alongside legendary Roman legions, to elephants in modern history who have suffered bombs and napalm for their service, War Elephants examines the pachyderms' role in the equivalent of tanks, bulldozers, cargo haulers and cavalry throughout the millennia. Now after the elephants have made such great sacrifices in warfare, it is the elephants themselves who desperately need protection. A serious-minded work of significant military history scholarship by professional librarian John Kistler, War Elephants is recommended reading for anyone curious about the important role elephants have played in human history.