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Musings on Elephants by Gary LyonTo comment on Jon's recent article, there were three types of elephant
in the ancient world - the Indian & African (as now) but also the
African bush elephant which was the smallest of the three (average height
only 8', against 9' for the African & 11' for the Indian). This was
the species most commonly used by the Romans and Carthaginians although
they knew of the other species and valued them more - Hannibal has at
least one Indian elephant in Italy. I think (from memory) that only one or two elephants survived the crossing of the alps and the cold winter that followed but that Hannibal received several lots of reinforcements during his campaigns in Italy (which lasted from 218 to 202 bc - sixteen years). Anybody else know more about this ? Ed's Note: Further to Gary's comments I think the African elephant as we know it today is larger than the Indian Elephant, as I seem to recollect that the African Bull elephant is the largest land mammal. This could explain why I was confused about why Romans preferred Indian elephants stating they were larger and tended to scare the smaller African elephant. However I also seem to remember a news report in the last couple of years that said that a small species of elephant that had been thought extinct was found in the jungles of the Congo (or some other West African country). |