Description
War elephants had to be trained like men and cavalry horses to endure the noise and chaos of battle. Indian war elephants were larger than their African counterparts and strong enough to carry a 'howdah', or small wooden tower, on their backs. The driver sat astride the beast’s neck while two men, armed with javelins, were in the howdah. The African elephants of the period were a smaller, third species found in northern Africa, and now extinct; they were not the large, intractable wild creatures from sub-Saharan Africa which are familiar to us. The Indian variety first came to the Middle East when Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great’s Successors, invaded India in 305BC. As part of the peace treaty between the Seleucid dynasty and the Indian Mauryans, 500 war elephants came to the Seleucids. This corps remained an important part of the Seleucids’ army until their defeat by the Romans at Magnesia in 190BC. The subsequent peace saw the forfeiture of all the elephants to the Romans, and the Seleucids were forbidden from breeding any more.
