Hannibal's Elephants

[Brian]

How many elephants survived the crossing of the Alps?
Thanks
Brian

[Duncan Head]

I don't think we know for certain: no good source says.

Some modern writers mention 37 elephants at the Trebia, but that figure is actually the one Appian gives for the number of elephants that Hannibal had with him when he set out (Hannibalic War 4), and Polybius 3.42 gives for the number at the Rhone crossing.

Neither Livy nor Polybius mention elephant losses when describing the crossing of the Alps, though they do talk of the heavy losses of men, horses and baggage-animals, and do spend time narrating how the elephants were successfully brought across various obstacles. It is therefore quite possible that most of the 37 did survivve.

I don't think we are told how many elephants fought at the Trebia either; accounts of losses come after the battle. Livy says that "The driving sleet and the intolerable cold caused the death of many men and baggage animals, and nearly all the elephants perished" in the pursuit after Trebia (21.56) and "of the elephants which survived the battle of the Trebia they lost seven" in the cold of the following winter (21.58). Shortly afterwards (22.2, and Polybius 3.79) when Hannibal crosses the Arno marshes, there's only one elephant left.

Polybius (3.74) says that after Trebia "But from the rain and the snow which followed it (the battle), they suffered so severely, that all the elephants except one died" which seems to conflate Livy's 21.56 and 21.58 into one episode.

So, absolute minimum: if Livy's two episodes of loss are doublets and the cold only killed seven in total, then there were eight elephants at Trebia, and 29 died on the march - just neither of our main sources thought to mention it. Maximum, all 37 survived the Alps, 29 died at the Trebia or in the pursuit, seven the next winter, leaving one.

My own opinion is that it's most likely, since we hear nothing of heavy elephant losses on the march, that nearly all the 37 made it to Italy, with a few perishing on the way.

[Patrick Waterson]

For what it it worth, I am inclined to agree with Duncan - the elephants appear to take a significant role at the Trebia, which is consistent with most of them having survived the passage of the Pyrenees, Rhone and Alps.

None are noted as lost when crossing the Pyrenees.

Polybius (III.46) notes that "most of them survived" the crossing of the Rhone, implying the loss of at least one there, and although noting (III.57) that "the animals were in miserable condition" when crossing the Alps does not specifically mention any losses to elephants.

One can probably safely use 32 elephants at the Trebia, or more daringly even go as high as 36.  32 seems a safe-ish number on the basis of the source information we have.

[Mark G]

surely Livy is extrapolating from Polybius, rather than Polybius conflating Livy.

[Patrick Waterson]

True. 

I think Duncan meant that Polybius conflated the events, otherwise he would need a time machine!  Livy chose to list them separately.

[Duncan Head]

Indeed. It is conceivable that there were two stages of loss from cold mentioned in earlier sources, that Polybios conflated them or simply omitted one, and that Livy found both mentioned separately, perhaps in one of his Roman annalists.