Epirote Elephants and other elephant suggestions
I meant to post on this some time ago, but forgot.
The elephants Pyrrhus took to Italy are not African elephants, but Indians. The description for the Epirote elephants says that they are Africans and that Pyrrhus got them from the Ptolemies.
Thats not correct.
One might well ask, how did Indian elephants get to Macedonia? And elsewhere in Europe!
So here goes.
The Macedonians captured some 50 elephants (not sure of the numbers) after Gaugamela.
In addition, large numbers of elephants were acquired during Alexander's campaign in India.
Either through capture from defeated Kings/satraps etc or as gifts.
Alexander had 200 elephants in India (Arrian VI, 5.5).
When Alexander died, Perdiccas took control of the Royal army and the elephants with them.
During the settlement of Babylon, Perdiccas used the elephants and cavalry to impose his will upon the infantry. I believe he had the ringleaders of the opposition amongst the infantry crushed to death by the elephants.
As we all know, Perdiccas was soon at war with Antipater, Craterus and Ptolemy amongst others.
Perdiccas proceeded to attack Egypt but was unable to force a crossing.
After failing to take Pelusium, Perdiccas used the elephants to act as a ford in the river to stop his men being swept away. Apparently this had the unforeseen problem of making the crossing more hazardous as the elephants stirred up the river bed making the footing untenable for the crossing soldiers.
Many men were drowned or attacked by crocodiles ("devoured by the animals in the river" according to Diodorus).
The approach of Antipater and his army combined with these setbacks led to Perdiccas being murdered by his officers. With Perdiccas out of the picture, this led to the settlement of Triparadeisos.
Antigonus was to become overlord of Asia and took command of the royal army in order to fight Eumenes, Attalos, Alketas and the other Perdiccan forces in Asia Minor.
Antigonus was also charged with protection of the Kings.
Kassander was appointed Antigonus' chiliarch. I have read that this assignment was due to Antipater not trusting Antigonus. But I think this was a sign of good faith on Antipater's part.
Also, on his death he made Kassander chiliarch to Polyperchon also.
Antigonus was initially inactive. Kassander went to Antipater before he left Asia Minor to return to Macedon and a modification to the treaty of Triparadeisos was made.
(The view that Kassander was plotting against Antigonus is the view of hindsight. Kassander may well have pleaded Antigonus case).
The royal army was a mutinous bunch and gave trouble to Antigonus, Antipater and even Alexander before his death. They were unreliable, especially as they were expected to face former comrades.
The Silver Shields are a prime example of being difficult to handle.
From his own army, Antipater gave Antigonus 8,500 Macedonian infantry, 1500 companion cavalry and half the elephants, which amounted to 70 from his army (Arrian I, 42-43).
In return Antigonus handed over the most unruly Macedonian elements in the royal army and care of the Kings. Antigonus later had to allow another 3,000 Macedonians to return home to Macedon rather than them join Alketas etc.
Along with the unruly elements of the Royal army, Antipater returned to Macedonia with 70 elephants.
With Antipater's death, these elephants passed to Polyperchon.
Polyperchon used 65 elephants in his failed attempt to storm the Piraeus (Diodorus XVIII, 68.2).
Megalopolis was also able to fight off Polyperchon and his elephants(Diodorus XVIII, 70-71).
When Kassander drove Polyperchon out of Macedonia, he captured some of Polyperchon's elephants(Diodorus XIX, 39.7).
When Kassander besieged Olympias in Pydna, he starved her into submission.
The remainder of Polyperchon's elephants were "fed on sawdust and died" (Diodorus XIX, 49.3).
If there were any surviving elephants from Pydna, they would have fallen into Kassander's lap.
Kassander used his newly acquired elephants against Argos and Epidaurus in 316 BC (History of Macedonia pg 316).
The next influx of elephants into Macedonian Europe would have surely come after the Ipsus campaign.
With the defeat and death of Antigonus by Seleucus and Lysimachus, they divided up his empire and his military forces. I would think that Lysimachus would have wanted what remained of the elephant corps of Antigonus. He didn't have an elephant corps and Seleucus might well have been fine with this as Lysimachus could not compete with him in the field of elephants regardless. The price for this might have been Seleucus being able to enroll heavy infantry from the defeated army in which he was quite deficient.
I could be wrong about this, but were not the Hypaspists of Antigonus (inherited from Eumenes) enrolled into the Seleucid military. Seleucus had presumably enrolled/reformed the silver shields when he had taken control of the east.
While this is basically speculation on my part, it certainly is the first opportunity Lysimachus would have had to create his own elephant corps.
When Kassander died in 297 BC, his kingdom fell into chaos, his eldest son died, and his two remaining sons, Antipater and Alexander, eventually fought each other. Alexander appealed to Demetrius and Pyrrhus for aid, with Demetrius being the first to respond. Alexander realizing he had made a mistake, decided to do away with Demetrius. Demetrius caught wind of this plot, and in turn had Alexander killed.
Antipater fled to Lysimachus. Demetrius took control of Macedon, and with it Kassander's former elephant corps. Pausanias ( 1, 12.3) states that Pyrrhus captured some elephants after defeating Demetrius in battle. Demetrius can only have acquired elephants from the Macedonian herd.
By 287 BC Demetrius had been driven from Macedon in a two pronged attack by Lysimachus from the east and Pyrrhus from the west.
Its possible that Lysimachus and Pyrrhus split the Macedonian herd, but its seems more likely that Lysimachus took them all when Macedon was divided between them.
Soon Lysimachus turned on Pyrrhus and took all of Macedon.
Little is known of the Korupedion campaign.
Now enters Ptolemy Ceraunus. The thunderbolt. When Lysimachus killed his son, Agathocles, kicking off the collapse of his kingdom and giving Seleucus an opportunity to attack, Ceraunus fled to the court of Seleucus with his sister, Lysandra, Agathocles wife, and their children.
Lysimachus other wife, Arsinoe, who convinced Lysimachus to kill Agathocles, was also sister to Ceraunus. Go figure!
Seleucus invaded Asia Minor during the winter of 281, which must have made it quite difficult for Lysimachus to muster a sufficiently strong army.
(As was evidenced during the contest between Antigonus and Eumenes, getting your elephants mustered during the winter is no easy thing. Antigonus' forces nearly captured Eumenes' elephants who were one of the last units to answer the call to muster).
The seemingly total collapse of his position in Asia Minor suggests that Lysimachus might have had to wing it and cross to Asia Minor with the troops he had, leaving his elephants behind.
In any event, he was defeated and his empire was Seleucus' for the taking.
If Seleucus had elephants for the Korupedion campaign, which I think he must have, it seems unlikely he would have taken them with him to Europe. If he did take them, Ceraunus appropriated them.
Upon their arrival in Europe, Ceraunus promptly murdered Seleucus and took over the European part of Lysimachus' kingdom i.e. Thrace and Macedon.
Ceraunus had a lot of potential threats to face.
Seleucus' son and heir, Antiochus, would surely want revenge.
Antigonus Gonatas in Greece launched an attack that Ceraunus was able to beat off. There was also the wife of Lysimachus, Arsinoe and her children to deal with.
Last, but far from least, was Pyrrhus. He must surely have been considered the most dangerous threat for Ceraunus, especially with the problems facing Antiochus after his father's death.
Subsequently, Ceraunus seems to have loaned Pyrrhus troops as the price of peace.
Pyrrhus received 5,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 50 elephants from Ceraunus (Justin XVII, 2.14).
That Ceraunus could give Pyrrhus 50 elephants suggests that Lysimachus was not able to take his elephant corps to Asia Minor to fight Seleucus. Ceraunus retained some elephants, but as to how many is any ones guess. He was apparently thrown from his elephant when he was defeated and killed in battle against the invading Gauls (A History of Macedonia III, pg 253). Ceraunus clearly still had some elephants left after giving Pyrrhus 50.
Antigonus Gonatas seems to have inherited the remaining elephants when he took over Macedon in 277 BC.
Pyrrhus defeated Gonatas in 274 BC and captured his elephants (A history of Macedon III, pg 261).
In 272 BC Pyrrhus was killed in a confused night battle while trying to take Argos. His elephants could not get into the city with their towers on and this caused a lot of confusion.
Antigonus Gonatas is recorded with elephants a few years later when he took Megara (Polyaenus IV, 6.3).
Whatever elephants were still left in Macedon and Greece after all this fighting, they were now almost certainly in the hands of Antigonus Gonatas who presumably took over whatever elephants Pyrrhus had.
The bottom line is that no african elephants were given to Pyrrhus.
According to H.H. Scullard, the capturing and training of African elephants most likely started during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Bases were established during his reign on the nile and on the red sea for transport of captured elephants as well as trading posts.
The Ptolemies also had some Indian elephants captured from Demetrius at the battle of Gaza in 313 BC.
Some must have still been in service, but replacement Indian elephants wasn't going to happen.
So they needed to establish a corps of African elephants to try and offset the Seleucid elephants.
The time frame doesn't really allow for African elephants to have been supplied to Prryhus by the Ptolemies. Pyrrhus was in Italy in by 280 BC. Philadelphus was king for maybe two or three years at this point.
Also, I can't imagine the Ptolemies commiting 30 or 40 elephants to transports when one considers that Antigonus Gonatas had a pretty solid fleet and well placed strategic naval bases in Corinth and Demetrias.
In my opinion, it would have been a big risk trying to get the elephants to Greece this way.
And such a venture would surely have been mentioned in the sources. All of them!
Elephants in the hulls of ships for a week or two? Thats almost up there with taking a bunch of elephants over, shall we say, the Alps!
There is also no evidence that the good relations enjoyed between Pyrrhus and Ptolemy Soter extended to Soter's son, Philadelphus. Prryhus and Soter apparently referred to each other as father and son.
As far as the game goes, I would love to see Macedon and the Ptolemies start with Indian elephants.
The same as the Bactrian Indian elephant unit perhaps. Also, if they are able to grab a territory with the Indian elephant resource, then be able to recruit Indian elephants.
The same for Epirus.
Just a suggestion.
Hope you enjoyed my novel!
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