Quote Originally Posted by antisocialmunky
Well, elephants don't like little things running around them and most animals are detered by fire so its not THAT insane. It may have a practical use as short term area denile and psy-ops things if they were ever employed in that fashion.
IIRC the Romans did use them once or twice. They weren't even the most silly anti-elephant measure in history. For example: Perseus attempted to repel the Roman elephants by dressing up a unit of soldiers in spiky armour. I've always imagined flaming pigs being a symbolic representation of such exotic tactics: they may work, or they make backfire.