War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
1–10 of 51 posts
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#2"Moreover, the Roman elephants were smaller African elephants, effectively useless against the large Asian elephants the Seleucids used"
I thought African elephants were larger than Asian elephants?
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#3"Moreover, the Roman elephants were smaller African elephants, effectively useless against the large Asian elephants the Seleucids used" I thought African elephants were larger than Asian elephants?
I was just coming here to comment on this. The blog is "Unmitigated Pedantry" after all so I think this kind of detail would be appreciated
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#4"Moreover, the Roman elephants were smaller African elephants, effectively useless against the large Asian elephants the Seleucids used" I thought African elephants were larger than Asian elephants?
There were two kinds of African Elephants; one from North Africa were domesticated and became extinct due to overexploitation. North African elephants were very small and lightly built compared to Asian varieties.
The White African Elephants of the Savanah, to which we all are familiar were never domesticated.
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#5"Moreover, the Roman elephants were smaller African elephants, effectively useless against the large Asian elephants the Seleucids used" I thought African elephants were larger than Asian elephants?
I was just coming here to comment on this. The blog is "Unmitigated Pedantry" after all so I think this kind of detail would be appreciated
It is mentioned in one of the captions.
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#6Definitely interesting, but the post isn't about elephants vs wolves (no wolves are mentioned!) but about why the Romans didn't adopt the use of elephants in war.
TLDR; Despite being theoretically SUPERBADASS (my words), elephants are only somewhat effective against prepared armies, but are expensive and hard to maintain, especially compared to horses.
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#7If anyone is new to his blog and finds this series entertaining, his series on Sparta is amazing and incredibly insightful: https://acoup.blog/tag/sparta/
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#8Definitely interesting, but the post isn't about elephants vs wolves (no wolves are mentioned!) but about why the Romans didn't adopt the use of elephants in war. TLDR; Despite being theoretically SUPERBADASS (my words), elephants are only somewhat effective against prepared armies, but are expensive and hard to maintain, especially compared to horses.
The Wolves are representative of the Romans!
Legend has it that the founders of Rome were raised by a she wolf! A lot of roman cultural items have an imagery of the she wolf.
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#9Definitely interesting, but the post isn't about elephants vs wolves (no wolves are mentioned!) but about why the Romans didn't adopt the use of elephants in war. TLDR; Despite being theoretically SUPERBADASS (my words), elephants are only somewhat effective against prepared armies, but are expensive and hard to maintain, especially compared to horses.
The wolves in this case are the Romans themselves (The wolf being a symbol of Rome thanks to the Romulus and Remus myth). republican light infantry wore wolf pelts, and legionary standard bearers wore animal pelt headdresses, including wolves.
Re: War Elephants, Part II: Elephants Against Wolves (2019)
#10It’s interesting that his analysis of war elephants has a lot of parallels to his thoughts about chemical weapons. In the hands of a sufficiently advanced military, both are an expensive, complicated solution in search of a problem, and both are easily neutralized by a peer competitor.
https://acoup.blog/2020/03/20/collections-why-dont-we-use-ch...