War Pigs. No, not the song. As I am wont to do when things slow down at my desk, I was surfing randomly through the internet when I stumbled upon this nugget of information concerning the ancient use of war pigs. How did I end up at war pigs? I can't remember how I got started but I ended up looking up elephant factoids, drifted from there to Hannibal, and from there to anti-elephant battle tactics. Yes, it's a strange road but, then again, my mind moves in strange ways. Anyway, about the war pigs:
War pigs, also known as incendiary pigs, are pigs speculated to have been used at most rarely in ancient warfare as a countermeasure to war elephants. The pigs were allegedly covered with tar, pitch, olive oil, or other flammable materials, set on fire, and driven towards enemy war elephants, with the intention that the elephants, terrified by the piercing squeals and oncoming flames, would flee in panic through the lines of their drivers' own army. A burning pig cannot be easily controlled, and could quickly turn into a loose cannon causing harm to friendly soldiers. However, the hope of stopping war elephants was enough to make war pigs a desirable tactic.
Source: Wikipedia (emphasis mine)
The ancients sure were enterprising folks, weren't they? You have to wonder- you have to wonder- how they arrived at this particular solution to the problem and how many solutions were tried and tested before being thrown out in favor of the war pig system. And who did the testing? That was a grisly, thankless job though I suppose the guy got some free meals out of it.
For myself, elephants or no, if I see a gang of burning pigs stampeding towards me, I'm going the other way. Fast.
|