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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, as they are faster and more aggressive.
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. Elephants, probably due to their bad temper, expensive feeding and slow growth rate (15 years to adulthood), 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 elephants dates from around 1100 BC and is mentioned in several Sanskrit hymns.
From the East, war elephants migrated to the Persian empire where they were used in several campaigns. The battle of Gaugamela ( October 1October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in Leap years). There are 91 days remaining. Events 331 BC Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Arbela 959 Edgar the Peaceable becomes king of all England 965 John XIII becomes Pop, 331 BCCenturies: 5th century BC 4th century BC 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC Years: 336 BC 335 BC 334 BC 333 BC 332 BC 331 BC 330 BC 329 BC 328 BC 327 BC 326 BC Events October 1 B), fought against Alexander the Greatbust of Alexander the Great Alexander III (late July, 356 BC June 10, 323 BC), King of Macedon ( 336 BC-323 BC), known as Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders of the ancient world. Following the unification of the multipl was probably among the first confrontations of Europeans with war elephants. The fifteen animals, placed at the centre of the Persian line, made such an impression on the Macedonian troops that Alexander felt the need to sacrifice to the god of fear in the night before the battle. Gaugamela was Alexander's greatest success, which he won by carefully placing his cavalry away from the elephants. Following his conquest of Persia, Alexander recognised the use of the animals and incorporated a number of them in his army. Five years later, in the battle of the Hydaspes RiverThe battle of the Hydaspes River was a battle fought by Alexander the Great in 326 BC against the Indian king Purushotthama (better known as Porus) on the Hydaspes River (now the Jhelum) in present-day Pakistan. Although Alexander was victorious, his army, although without his own, Alexander already knew how to deal with elephants.
The successful military use of elephants spread across the world. The successors to Alexander's empire, the DiadochiThe word Diadochi means "successors" in Greek. Specifically, the Diadochi were the rival successors to Alexander the Great, and the Wars of the Diadochi followed Alexander's death. This was the beginning of the so-called Hellenistic period of Greek histor, used hundreds of Indian elephants in their wars. The CarthaginiansThis article is about the ancient city-state of Carthage in North Africa. For other uses of the word, see Carthage (disambiguation). Mediterranean Sea, showing location of Carthage (near modern Tunis). Map also shows Italy and the islands Sicily, Sardinia and the EgyptiansJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 km² 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797 began taming African elephants for the same purpose, while the NumidiaThis article is about the Roman province. See also Numidia, Pennsylvania, USA''. Numidia was an ancient African Berber kingdom and later a Roman province on the northern coast of Africa between the province of Africa (where Tunisia is now) and the provincns used the Forest elephant. African elephants were larger but did not guarantee victory for Antiochus III the Great at the battle of Raphia in 217 BC.
In the next centuries, further use of war elephants in Europe was mainly against the Roman Republic. From the battle of Heraclea ( 280 BC, Macedonian Wars) to the famous march across the Alps by Hannibal during the Second Punic war, elephants terrified the Roman legions. Like Alexander, the Romans found a way to cope with the dangerous elephant charges. In Hannibal's last battle ( Zama, 202 BC), his elephant charge was ineffective because the Roman maniples simply made way for them to pass. More than a century later, in the battle of Thapsus ( February 6 46 BC), Julius Caesar armed his fifth legion (Alaudae) with axes and commanded his legionaries to strike at the elephant's legs. The legion withstood the charge and the elephant became its symbol.
A reportedly effective anti-elephant weapon was the pig. Pliny the Elder reported that "elephants are scared by the smallest squeal of a pig" (VIII, 1.27). 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 elephants bolted in terror from the flaming squealing pigs.
In the Middle Ages, elephants were seldom used. Charlemagne took his elephant, Abul-Abbas, when he went to fight the Danes in 804, and the Crusades gave Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor the opportunity to capture an elephant in the Holy Land, later used in the capture of Cremona in 1214.
The Khmer army waged war with elephants against the Cham in the 12th century.
It was the use of elephants, again by an Indian Sultanate, that almost put an halt to Timur's conquests. In 1398 Timur's army faced more than one hundred Indian elephants in battle and almost lost by pure fear of his troops. Historical accounts say that the Turks won due to an ingenious strategy: Timur set flaming straw on the back of his camels before the charge. The smoke made the camels run forward and scared the elephants, who crushed their own troops in an attempt to retreat. Another account of the campaign (that of Ahmed ibn Arabshah ) reports that Timur used oversized caltrops to halt the elephant charge. Later, the Turkic leader used the animals against the Ottoman Empire.
With the advent of gunpowder warfare in the late 15th century, war elephants became obsolete as a charging element because they could be easily knocked down by a cannon shot.