Tower as an Armament of Ancient War Elephants
Nefedkin Alexandr K.
Tower as an armament of a war elephant was probably invented in the army of Antigonus Monophthalmos in 318–317 BC, when Antigonus found out that his enemy Eumenes of Cardia had more numerous elephantry. The tower defended its warriors better from the fire of the enemy’s infantry and from weapons of the opponent elephantry-men. Beside the mahout, Indian elephant carried four warriors, while smaller African forest elephant carried three men. If the sources mention a larger number of the crew (ten and more), it has to do with an exaggeration of the source or with the paramilitary processions and parades, in which many warriors, more than usual, mounted an elephant in order to impress the spectators. Elephantry-men were armed with javelins and sarissae, and in the Orient, especially in the Seleucid empire, with bows. We have no information about the footmen who were attached to each elephant in the Hellenistic army, like the Indian «guard of the feet», but in battlefield the elephants coordinated with skirmishers’ units. The towers, as an effective innovation, were the equipment of Mediterranean elephantry (including Carthagenian) up to the disappearance of elephantry in the 1st century BC; later in the Sassanian era they were used again.