War elephant: Did you mean...?

Elephants were used in the ancient Indian army, irrespective of regions, dynasties, or points in time; their importance was never denied and continued well into the medieval period as well. The ready availability in the subcontinent of the...

Elephants were thought of as fierce and frightful monsters in antiquity, very real though rarely seen until the Hellenistic period. They were deployed on the battlefield to strike terror into the enemy, however, since fear was considered...

In the search for ever more impressive and lethal weapons to shock the enemy and bring total victory the armies of ancient Greece, Carthage, and even sometimes Rome turned to the elephant. Huge, exotic, and frightening the life out of an...

An artist's rendition of a Carthaginian war elephant during the Punic Wars with Rome.

One of a pair of decorative silver phalerae (horse’s harness plagues) discovered in a grave during Russian excavations, depicting a turreted war elephant wearing a saddle cloth decorated with a hippocampus (Eastern Iran, ca. 3rd-2nd cent...

An artist's impression of how Carthaginian general Hannibal may have appeared riding a war elephant.

In 1846, graduates of West Point Military Academy were deployed to fight in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Less than 20 years later, many now wearing different uniforms, they would meet again as adversaries in the American Civil War...

Silver denarius of Julius Caesar. The coin depicts an elephant stepping on a snake with the legend "CAESAR" written below. The coin may reference his victory at the Battle of Thapsus in 49 BCE, where he defeated Roman and Numidian forces...

Black-and-white mosaic with an elephant in the Piazzale delle Corporazioni (Square of the Corporations) at Ostia Antica, Italy. The inscription as well as the elephant show that merchants from Sabrata (Libya) traded in wild animals and/or...

Composite bull and elephant stone sculpture at Vittala Temple, Hampi, India. Carved between 1300 - 1500 CE, this sculpture has a bull on the left and an elephant on the right with a single representation of the head.