War pig

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Black Sabbath song, see War Pigs. For other uses, see War pigs (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Pig War.

War pigs are pigs reported to have been used in ancient warfare as military animals. In combat, they were mostly employed as a countermeasure against war elephants.

Historical accounts of incendiary pigs or flaming pigs were recorded by the Greek military writer Polyaenus[1] and by Aelian.[2] Both writers reported that Antigonus II Gonatas' siege of Megara in 266 BC was broken when the Megarians doused some pigs with combustible pitch, crude oil or resin, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror from the flaming, squealing pigs, often killing great numbers of their own soldiers by trampling them to death.[3][4] According to an account, Gonatas later made his mahouts keep a swine among elephants to accustom the animals to pigs and this practice was immortalized by a Roman bronze coin dating back to his time, which showed an elephant on one side and a pig on the other.[5]

History

In the 1st century BC, the Roman author

King Porus in India.[9]

The Roman naval and army commander

Khosrau's single siege elephant in the 6th century AD.[13]

As late as the 16th century, the supposed terror of the elephant for the squealing pig was reported by the English politician Reginald Scot.[14]

References

  1. ^ Polyaenus, "Stratagems" 4.6.3
  2. ^ Aelian, "On Animals" 16.36
  3. ISBN 9781137319319
    .
  4. ISBN 9780191035159
    .
  5. ISBN 9780803260047
    .
  6. ^ Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 5.1298–1349
  7. ISBN 9780128099131
    .
  8. ^ Pseudo-Callisthenes, "Letter to Aristotle" 12
  9. ^ Mayor 2005; Kistler 2007
  10. ^ Pliny the Elder, "Natural History" 8.9.27
  11. ^ Aelian, "On Animals" 1.38
  12. ^ Procopius, "History of the Wars" 8.14.30–43
  13. ISBN 9781846038037
    .
  14. ^ Petersson, R. T. (1956). Sir Kenelm Digby. Harvard University Press.

Bibliography

  • Kistler, J. (2005, 2007). War Elephants. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Mayor, A. (2005, 2009). Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. NY: Overlook/Duckworth.


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