Elephants "Bush or Forest?"

[The Panda Centurion]

Am i correct in thinking that african bush elephants (the big ones) were not used by either the Ptolemaics or the Carthaginians, only african forest elephants. From all of the sources i've examined, i can find no mention of large african elephants being tamed for war, only small ones. For example, in the battle of Raphia, the Ptolemaics used african forest elephants because their supply of indian elephants had been cut off by the Seleucids; the bigger indian elephants of the Seleucids scared away the little Ptolemaic elephants. There is also no mention of the Carthaginians using bush elephants.

My point is that, if it is the case that only forest elephants were used, EB should not include bush elephants. Are you going to do this? Indian elephants should still be included though.


- Panda

[Urnamma]

I'll reply to you in depth tomorrow, never fear. I'm getting a bit tired.

[Urnamma]

Practically speaking, they had all 3 types of elephants. The native source was of forest elephants. The Ptolemies first sold Carthage Indian elephants, then african bush elephants after the Seleucids cut off the supply of Indian elephants.

Meroe got rich in part because they sold the Ptolemies their bush elephants (mainly after Raphia).