The use of tamed elephants in human warfare dates back to at least the Sixth Century BC in what is now India and were used by the Chinese as late as the Fifteenth Century AD in what is now Vietnam. In the ancient Mediterranean, various peoples made use of war elephants until the Roman Republic developed effective tactics for dealing with these living tanks that were terrifying, but logistically demanding upon armies using them.
Hellenistic (Greeks from Alexander the Great until the Roman conquest) empires used war elephants. In a recent article published in The Classical Quarterly, Silvannen Gerrard of the University of Manchester assesses evidence that the Greek handlers of war elephants got them intoxicated prior to combat.
In addition to textual evidence from the Maccabean Revolt, she considers the staggering amount of alcohol that scientists say would be necessary to get a full grown elephant drunk. Would it be practical for an army on the move to carry that much wine for this purpose? Furthermore, how do elephants behave while drunk? An army with drunk elephants in its midst may experience negative outcomes.
After also evaluating evidence from Indian sources, Gerrard concludes that although the Hellenistic armies attacking the Maccabeans may have used drunk elephants, this was unlikely to be the standard practice at the time.
Image: Heinrich Leutemann
-via Theo Nash