Quote Originally Posted by Eduorius
The elephants of the Sucessor had armor. In the book of John Warry about ancient warfare he says that the Ptolemies used armor for their African elephants so that they could have a chance against the bigger Indian elephants used by the Seleucids at Raphia.
Actually, none of the elephants at Raphia were armoured, and there's no evidence at all for Ptolemaic elephants wearing armour.

What I am not sure its about the mahout (the elephant rider) using armor. I have always read that the elephant panicked when he lost his riders, but I am not sure how easy elephants lost their riders. You understand me?

Without protection they could easy be killed by a well placed javaline or arrow, but illustrations I have found dont show them with much protection. I hope people dont get angry but if it is for me, while having so many elephants and factions that use them, I vote for having elephants without armored mahouts and some elephants with armoured mahouts.

http://members.tripod.com/joseph_ber.../hydaspes4.gif

http://www.hobbybunker.com/images/products/2025a1.jpg

http://www.ancientbattles.com/indian...dian_EL_01.jpg

As you see its also a matter of interpretation as in the illustrations above there are 2 Indian elephants with unarmored riders, but there is one illustration that has a rider with a linothorax and a Greek helmet.
As I posted earlier in this thread, the most armour a mahout is ever shown with is a helmet. It is very clear that they never wore heavy armour like cuirasses according to the archaeological evidence, and any reconstructions with armoured mahouts are pure speculation.