Re: Fw: The bigger they were...

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Roberta Meehan wrote:

> >  When an elephant walks over rough or steep terrain, it
> > places its feet EXTREMELY CAREFULLY. It can be almost unnerving to see
> > just how careful and agile a seemingly 'lumbering' animal can be.
>
>
> Probably totally off topic -- but, how did Hannibal get them to cross
> the Alps?

With great difficulty.

Although Hannibal Barca was a brilliant general, the idea of bringing 
elephants into Italy as war machines was a flop.  Most of them didn't 
survive the crossing of the Alpes.

Elephants were used in war by several ancient cultures, including Hannibal's 
Carthage.  Elephants made superb battering rams against enemy gates and 
fortifications; they could frighten the enemy's horses and camels; they 
could charge and break enemy ranks, and were very effective at trampling 
enemy infantry; and (like horses and camels) they offered the rider an 
elevated vantage for deploying weapons (javelins, spears, arrows etc).

The principal advantage of horses in war is speed and elevation to the 
rider; but elephants were weapons in their own right.  Thus, although it's a 
term we usually associate with germs and microbes, elephants qualify as one 
of the earliest known methods of biological warfare.

Unfortunately (for humans and elephants alike) war elephants were easily 
spooked by the din of battle; when this happened (or they were wounded) they 
were just as likely to trample friend as foe.  For this reason, elephant 
riders were equipped with a hammer and spike to drive into the elephants 
head if the beast went on an uncontrolled rampage.  Like other bio-warfare 
agents, elephants could be extremely difficult to control.

Woops, I've strayed way off-topic.  Back to dinosaurs...

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