the greatest part of Demetrius's horse were in such á consternation that they forthwith fled."*

In the great battle of Raphia, between Ptolemy Philopator, the fourth of the dynasty, and Antiochus the Great, elephants were opposed to each other in nearly equal numbers. Polybius has described the contest of the elephants with his accustomed spirit: "The signal was sounded to engage, and the elephants, approaching first, began the combat. Among those that belonged to Ptolemy, there were some that advanced boldly against their adversaries. It was then pleasing to behold the soldiers engaged in close combat from the towers, and pushing against each other with their spears. But the beasts themselves afforded a far nobler spectacle as they rushed together, front to front, with the greatest force and fury. For this is the manner in which they fight. Twisting their trunks together, they strive each of them with his utmost force to maintain his own ground, and to move his adversary from his place; and when the strongest of them has at last pushed aside the trunk of the other, and forced him to turn his flank, he then pierces him with his tusks in the same manner as bulls in fighting wound each other with their horns. But the greater part of the beasts that belonged to Ptolemy declined the combat. For this usually happens to the elephants of Afric, which are not able to support either the smell or cry of the Indian elephants. Or rather, perhaps, they are struck with terror at the view of their enormous size and strength; since, even before they approach near together, they frequently turn * Diodorus Siculus, lib. xix., cap. vi.

their backs and fly; and this it was which at this time happened. As soon, therefore, as these ani. mals, being thus disordered by their fears, had fallen against the ranks of their own army, and forced the royal guards to break the line, Antiochus, seizing the occasion, and advancing round on the outside of the elephants, charged the cavalry which. was commanded by Polycrates in the extremity of the left wing of Ptolemy. At the same time, also, the Grecian mercenaries, who stood within the elephants, near the phalanx, advanced with fury against the peltastæ, and routed them with little difficulty, because their ranks were likewise already broken by the elephants. Thus the whole left wing of the army of Ptolemy was defeated and forced fly."*

to

Nearly a century and a half afterward, we find a successor of Antiochus employing elephants of war in his battles with the Jews. The reader is probably familiar with the singular passage in the book of Maccabees, which describes the mode in which the animal was used in battle; but we tran scribe it, as completing the picture of elephant tactics, which gave a new character to the wars of Asia after the conquest of India: "To the end they might provoke the elephants to fight, they showed them the blood of grapes and mulberries. Moreover, they divided the beasts among the armies, and for every elephant they appointed a thousand men, armed with coats of mail, and with helmets, of brass on their heads; and, besides this, for every beast were ordained-five hundred horse. men of the best. These were ready at every oc-> * Polybius (Hampton's Translation), book v., chap. viii.

casion; wheresoever the beast was, and whithersoever the beast went, they went also, neither departed they from him. And upon the beasts were there strong towers of wood, which covered every one of them, and were girt fast unto them with devices; there were also upon every one thirty-two strong men, that fought upon him, besides the Indian that ruled him.”

The same history presents an example of courage and self-devotion, which shows how much the elephant was an object of dread, and, at the same time, how little his real power could avail against human heroism: "Eleazar also, surnamed Savaran, perceiving that one of the beasts, armed with royal harness, was higher than all the rest, and supposing that the king was upon him, put himself in jeopardy, to the end he might deliver his people, and get him a perpetual name; wherefore he ran upon him courageously through the midst of the battle, slaying on the right hand and on the left, so that they were divided from him on both sides. Which done, he crept under the elephant, and thrust him under, and slew him; whereupon the elephant fell down upon him, and there he died."

* Maccabees, book i., chap. vi.

CHAPTER XI.

EMPLOYMENT OF ELEPHANTS, IN WAR AND IN TRI UMPHS BY THE CARTHAGINIANS AND ROMANS.

ABOUT half a century after the death of Alexander, the elephant was first seen in Italy. In the battle of Heraclea (B.C. 280), Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, employed twenty Indian elephants, against the Romans. They had towers upon their backs full of bowmen; and Pyrrhus is described to have been indebted for his victory to the terror which the first sight of the elephants inspired. The King of Epirus, indeed, appears to have greatly relied upon the impressions to be produced by this new danger; but he had to contend with a people little accustomed to be shaken by vague apprehensions. When Fabricius went to Epirus to negotiate an exchange of prisoners with Pyrrhus, the king on one day offered him gold, which he refused; and on another, during their conference, caused an elephant to be suddenly produced, hoping to wrest from the fears of the Roman general those concessions which he could not obtain by his bribes. The honest and undaunted warrior, with a smile, said, "Neither your gold yesterday nor your beast today has made any impression upon me."* Within

four years after the battle of Heraclea, the ele phants of Pyrrhus had ceased to be formidable. Curius Dentatus commanded his soldiers to attack Plutarch; "Pyrrhus."

them with burning torches in one hand and their swords in the other. An accident, too, completed the effect of this well-conceived plan. A young elephant, having been wounded, made a fearful roar. ing, and his mother rushing through the field to his succour, and being followed by others, threw the troops of Pyrrhus into complete disorder. Four of the captured elephants were led in triumph to Rome, where they were called Lucanian oxen, probably because they were first seen by the Romans in Lucania.* At the siege of Argos, Pyr. rhus was equally unfortunate in the employment of this quadruped. In the rush of his army into the town, the gates were too low to admit the turreted elephants, and the animals, crowding back, car, ried disorder into the ranks of the assailants. Plu tarch, who mentions this circumstance, relates a romantic tale of the affectionate courage of the. elephant of Pyrrhus on this occasion, who kept a host of enemies at bay when his master had fallen from his back, and, taking him in his trunk, succeeded in removing him to a place of safety. In a similar spirit it is told of the elephant of Porus, that he extracted the darts from his master's wounds. Plutarch and Ælian, who were almost contempo rary, both give these questionable anecdotes, which they probably derived from some common tradition.

The Romans, having thus subdued the elephants of India, had soon to encounter those of Africa in much more formidable numbers. In the first Punic war, Regulus, the Roman consul, in his career of splendid success, captured eighteen elephants at the. battle of Adis; but Xantippus, the Lacedæmonian, * Pliny, lib. viii., cap. 6.