The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c7.53

c7.53

In the wars between Rome and Carthage which took place at this time Indian elephants trained to war were used by the Carthaginians. About 170 B.C. the Persian army included 120 elephants, as we learn from the Jewish chronicle of the time (1 Maccabees, viii. 6). In 163 B.C. there were thirty-two war elephants carrying Indian drivers (mahouts) and howdahs in the army of Antiochos Eupator of Syria (1 Maccabees, vi. 30-37). On a frieze in a tomb in Marissa in Palestine believed to date from about 100 B.C., painted in fresco on the wall is a figure of a fully caparizoned elephant certainly Indian. A fresco at Pompeii, lately discovered by Professor Spinazzola represents the Goddess Venus in a chariot drawn by four elephants.