The Haley Classical Journal, an undergraduate research publication affiliated with Hamilton College
The Elephant of Surprise An Appraisal of Surus the Military Elephant
Aimee Jean LaFon, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Class of 2021
Abstract
Surus the Carthaginian war elephant, Hannibal’s personal mount, is an elusive character in extant classical literature. Due to this fact, few scholars have undertaken the task of identifying and uniting the complete evidence for the existence of Surus. This paper aims to identify the most descriptive and accurate accounts of Surus’ physical characteristics, his role in the Second Punic War, and the Roman reception of this one-tusked elephant. Carthage’s determined attempt to acquire a large fleet of elephants during the years between the First and the Second Punic War resulted in the initial domestication of the North African Forest Elephant, a species completely separate from that of Surus, whose Syrian ancestry must have been evident by his larger size and traditional Syrian training. Not only did Surus fight in Hannibal’s troops, but he was the only elephant that witnessed the entirety of the Second Punic War. Surus became the mount of Hannibal Barca shortly before the battle of Lake Trasimene, at the time that Hannibal developed ophthalmia in one of his eyes which would later become blind. Since Hannibal rode Surus into battle over the course of fifteen years, classical sources attribute Surus with a ferocity alike to that of the Carthaginian general who devastated Rome. Once captured in 202 BCE at the battle of Zama, Surus was given an honorable discharge and put to pasture outside of the Roman city as a war prize. Surus appears in Latin literature as an animal to be feared and remembered. Evidence from ancient sources such as Hannibalic coins and literature reveal that Surus was renowned in the classical world for his valor in battle and unique status as Hannibal’s steed. A line in book VIII of Pliny’s Historia Naturalis mentions an elephant named Surus, stating that “Cato, in his Annals, while he has passed over in silence the names of the generals, has given that of an elephant called Surus, which fought with the greatest valour in the Carthaginian army, and had lost one of its tusks.” The early tradition of Carthaginian elephant troops was established in order to defeat Rome in the Second Punic War (218 — 201 BCE). Surus was a remarkable pachyderm due to his Syrian species, status as a prestigious trade item, and fame as a formidable weapon in the war against Rome. Surus was the sole surviving elephant of Hannibal’s troops after the march from Spain to Italy. After Hannibal became blind in one eye in 218 BCE, he rode Surus into battle for fifteen years until the elephant was captured by the Romans at the battle of Zama in 202 BCE. Mentions of Surus in Roman comedy reflect Roman fears of this specific elephant that appears in Roman literature decades after the Second Punic War. Through a compilation of historical evidence, biological characteristics of the Syrian elephant, Italian Hannibalic coinage, and Roman literature, Surus the elephant emerges as a remarkable symbol of Carthaginian pride and endurance that served to strike an anxious chord in the heart of the Romans during and after the Punic Wars. Origins of Hannibal’s Punic War Elephants The military elephants that Pyrrhus of Epirus led in battle against Carthaginian Sicily inspired Carthaginians to gather their own troops of elephants for the very first time. In addition, Carthage had never used elephants in battle until the First Punic War. The Greek general Pyrrhus of Epirus, in league with the Romans, first exposed Carthaginians to military elephants during battle in
The Haley | Volume I | Issue II | July 2020
278 BCE as the Roman Republic sought the annexation of Sicily.1 Rome retreated from Carthage’s Sicilian territory in 276 BCE only to conquer the undefended Greek cities on the other half of the island, which left Rome and Carthage as direct territorial neighbors.2 In the ten years between Rome’s retreat and the beginning of the first Carthaginian War in 264 BCE, Carthage had captured African forest elephants from their native forests in the Atlas mountains, Morocco, Algeria, and Northern Africa, built stables capable of housing up to 300 elephants within the city walls, and hired Indian mahouts.3 Carthage first deployed war elephants in 262 BCE against the Romans at Agrigentum.4 This first attempt to use elephants in battle failed, but by the time Hamilcar Barca became the Carthaginian military commander at the close of the Truceless War in 237 BCE,5 “Carthage in no small degree owed her salvation [to the elephants].”6 The military tradition of Hannibal’s family is renowned, and under the influence of his brother and father, Hannibal learned to lead the Carthaginian army. The Vow of Hannibal, a sacred vow to seek revenge on Rome, emphasizes the early aggression that Hannibal held against Rome for the remainder of his life. As written in Livy, it follows: His father Hamilcar, after the campaign in Africa, was about to carry his troops over to Spain, when Hannibal, then about nine years old, begged, with all the childish arts he could mus ter, to be allowed to accompany him; whereupon Hamilcar
1 Wise and Hook, Armies of the Carthaginian Wars 265-146 BC, p. 12; Diodorus XII. 8. 2. 2 Baker, Hannibal, p. 29. 3 Kistler, War Elephants, p.98. 4 Scullard, The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World, p. 149. 5 Kistler, War Elephants, p.107. 6 Tarn, Hellenistic Military & Naval Developments, p. 98.
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