The Elephant of Surprise: An Appraisal of Surus the Military Elephant

Surus the Carthaginian war elephant, Hannibal’s personal mount, is an elusive character in extant classical literature. Due to this fact, few scholars have undertaken the task of identifying and uniting the complete evidence for the existence of Surus. This paper aims to identify the most descriptive and accurate accounts of Surus’ physical characteristics, his role in the Second Punic War, and the Roman reception of this one-tusked elephant. Carthage’s determined attempt to acquire a large fleet of elephants during the years between the First and the Second Punic War resulted in the initial domestication of the North African Forest Elephant, a species completely separate from that of Surus, whose Syrian ancestry must have been evident by his larger size and traditional Syrian training. Not only did Surus fight in Hannibal’s troops, but he was the only elephant that witnessed the entirety of the Second Punic War. Surus became the mount of Hannibal Barca shortly before the battle of Lake Trasimene, at the time that Hannibal developed ophthalmia in one of his eyes which would later become blind. Since Hannibal rode Surus into battle over the course of fifteen years, classical sources attribute Surus with a ferocity alike to that of the Carthaginian general who devastated Rome. Once captured in 202 BCE at the battle of Zama, Surus was given an honorable discharge and put to pasture outside of the Roman city as a war prize. Surus appears in Latin literature as an animal to be feared and remembered. Evidence from ancient sources such as Hannibalic coins and literature reveal that Surus was renowned in the classical world for his valor in battle and unique status as Hannibal’s steed.

A line in book VIII of Pliny’s Historia Naturalis mentions an elephant named Surus, stating that “Cato, in his Annals, while he has passed over in silence the names of the generals, has given that of an elephant called Surus, which fought with the greatest valour in the Carthaginian army, and had lost one of its tusks.” The early tradition of Carthaginian elephant troops was established in order to defeat Rome in the Second Punic War (218 — 201 BCE). Surus was a remarkable pachyderm due to his Syrian species, status as a prestigious trade item, and fame as a formidable weapon in the war against Rome. Surus was the sole surviving elephant of Hannibal’s troops after the march from Spain to Italy. After Hannibal became blind in one eye in 218 BCE, he rode Surus into battle for fifteen years until the elephant was captured by the Romans at the battle of Zama in 202 BCE. Mentions of Surus in Roman comedy reflect Roman fears of this specific elephant that appears in Roman literature decades after the Second Punic War. Through a compilation of historical evidence, biological characteristics of the Syrian elephant, Italian Hannibalic coinage, and Roman literature, Surus the elephant emerges as a remarkable symbol of Carthaginian pride and endurance that served to strike an anxious chord in the heart of the Romans during and after the Punic Wars.

The military elephants that Pyrrhus of Epirus led in battle against Carthaginian Sicily inspired Carthaginians to gather their own troops of elephants for the very first time. In addition, Carthage had never used elephants in battle until the First Punic War. The Greek general Pyrrhus of Epirus, in league with the Romans, first exposed Carthaginians to military elephants during battle in 278 BCE as the Roman Republic sought the annexation of Sicily. 1 Rome retreated from Carthage’s Sicilian territory in 276 BCE only to conquer the undefended Greek cities on the other half of the island, which left Rome and Carthage as direct territorial neighbors. 2 In the ten years between Rome’s retreat and the beginning of the first Carthaginian War in 264 BCE, Carthage had captured African forest elephants from their native forests in the Atlas mountains, Morocco, Algeria, and Northern Africa, built stables capable of housing up to 300 elephants within the city walls, and hired Indian mahouts. 3 Carthage first deployed war elephants in 262 BCE against the Romans at Agrigentum. 4 This first attempt to use elephants in battle failed, but by the time Hamilcar Barca became the Carthaginian military commander at the close of the Truceless War in 237 BCE, 5 “Carthage in no small degree owed her salvation [to the elephants].” 6

The military tradition of Hannibal’s family is renowned, and under the influence of his brother and father, Hannibal learned to lead the Carthaginian army. The Vow of Hannibal, a sacred vow to seek revenge on Rome, emphasizes the early aggression that Hannibal held against Rome for the remainder of his life. As written in Livy, it follows:

Hannibal markedly sought to gain military recognition after his father drowned in 228 BCE. 8 Under the instruction and tutelage of his brother Hasdrubal, Hannibal quickly gained military recognition, and attained the rank of Carthaginian cavalry captain at the age of twenty-three in 224 BCE. 9 In this position, he was not only in charge of directing equestrians, but elephants and their trained mahouts. Hannibal’s early exposure to military animals was thus a precursor to his later expertise training and leading troops of animals into battle. In addition, the quick development of the new Carthaginian elephant corps magnifies the unprecedented military skill of Hannibal and his family. 10

Out of the hundreds of elephants Hannibal deployed in battle, there is only one that historians name. “Surus,” literally meaning “Syrian,” appears to stand out conspicuously among the horde of pachyderms that Hannibal employed in battle. 11 A line in Pliny’s Historia Naturalis mentions Surus, 12 stating that “Cato, in his Annals, while he [had] passed over in silence the names of the generals, [had] given that of an elephant called Surus, which fought with the greatest valour in the Carthaginian army, and had lost one of its tusks.” 13 Although Cato’s annals are lost to history, somehow an honorable mention of this Carthaginian elephant is not.

While the name Surus implies Syrian ancestry, the majority of elephants that Hannibal deployed were of the North African forest variety. The now-extinct North African forest elephant, or Luxodonta Africana Pharoensis, measures 2.5 meters tall on average, and it ischaracterized by a flat forehead, very large ears, a concave dip in the spine, a two “fingered” proboscis, and a large flap of skin joining the hind leg and flank.” 14 Both literary and numismatic evidence strongly support the majority use of the African forest elephant in Carthage. Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, and Hannibal appear frequently on coins issued by Italian cities in the spirit of alliance with Carthage (fig. 2a). 15 These Italian coins comprise the earliest extant numismatic evidence of the Syrian elephant, which exclusively appears on Hannibalic coinage c. 217 BCE. 16 The Syrian elephant that is depicted on these coins is a clear example of elephas maximus due to its “bulging forehead, smaller ears, and arched back” (fig. 2b). 17 The Syrian elephant could reach more than 3.5 meters tall at the shoulder, and was an intimidating and remarkably large opponent. 18 Some scholars believe that Surus was one of the last surviving members of the now-extinct species elephas maximus assurus, the largest subspecies of Asian elephants. There is no definitive evidence for this claim since Surus has not been exhumed, but nevertheless the possibility that he was a maximus assurus remains plausible. 19 Surus’ name and these coins are the only clear examples of the use of the Syrian elephant by Carthaginian troops at this time, which leads many scholars to conclude that Surus was the only Syrian elephant under Hannibal’s command. 20 This conclusion is plausible considering that the Ptolemies of Egypt, who had a strong trade relationship with Carthage, had already begun to capture Syrian elephants during conflicts with the Seleucid Empire starting in 321 BCE. 21 These Asian elephants were specifically trained for battle in the Seleucid empire, whose use of military elephants outdated Carthaginian use. This possibility suggests that Surus was a prestigious trade item and formidable weapon in the eyes of the Carthaginians and Romans alike due to the extraordinarily large size and strong military tradition of the Syrian elephant. Hannibal’s unusually strong elephant, who outlived Hannibal himself, proved vital to the general’s survival during his Italian expedition.

Hannibal, determined to dominate Rome, quietly gathered his troops in 218 BCE before making a bold march. 22 By beginning his campaign in Hispania, Hannibal would march his company to Italy. Once there, the general hoped to ally with the rebellious Celts in northern Italy and build a reputation as he approached Rome with plans of a full-fledged land attack on the city. 23 In May of 218 BCE, Hannibal took 90,000 mercenaries, 12,000 cavalry, and thirty-seven elephants on a 1,500 mile journey across Europe in order to approach Rome from the north. 24 The first challenge of the journey proved to be the crossing of the Rhone, where Hannibal’s troops planned to use large rafts to cross the 800m wide river. 25 The elephants were Hannibal’s only error in this strategy, as “some became so terror-stricken that they leaped in the river… [and] the drivers of these were all drowned.” 26 Mahouts, the formal name for the elephant drivers, functioned both as drivers and as primary caretakers of their elephants. The loss of the drowned mahouts necessitated a delay in the journey in order to wait for new Mahouts to sail from Carthage. The crossing of the Rhone created a critical delay in Hannibal’s plan to cross the Alps before late October when heavy snows would begin to fall. 27 On October 14, with Roman troops pursuing them, Hannibal’s company began their ascent of the Alps, covering 213 km in fifteen days (fig. 4). 28 All thirty-seven elephants not only survived this frigid trek, but may have been the key to survival for many of the Carthaginians. The hostile natives of the mountain passes, led by the deceitful guides whom Hannibal had hired, were frightened by the outlandish pachyderms who thus saved the army from many hostile advances. 29 In addition, during a four-day halt in progress due to a large boulder on the path, the shared warmth of blanketed elephants may have aided the survival of many men who could rest under the blankets with them. 30 Conditions worsened during the descent of the Alps, and narrow icy paths sent many men and animals plummeting to their deaths. By the time Hannibal finally reached the plains of the Po River, he had lost 18,000 foot soldiers and 2,000 horsemen. 31 Polybius insists that all of the elephants survived this expedition, although they “were in miserable condition from hunger.” 32 The Romans, wishing to take advantage of the weariness of the Carthaginian troops, mobilized immediately to Alpine Italy in the winter of 218 BCE. 33 Hannibal was forced to fight in order to travel farther south; his food supply was scarce, and frigid temperatures weakened his troops. The Carthaginian general used the inclement weather to his advantage in the Battle of Trebbia and ambushed Roman troops whilst lurking in marshes shrouded in a cold mist. 34 Since Hannibal was struggling with ophthalmia, he could not fight on foot but instead rode Surus into battle. Surus gave Hannibal an elevated platform, which he used to guide his troops across the wet marshland. 35 This decisive victory resulted in the loss of almost all of Hannibal’s elephants, who could no longer withstand the cold temperatures of the north. In fact, only Surus survived to see the next year. 36 Since Hannibal was eventually blinded in his infected eye, he rode his one-tusked elephant into battle for fifteen more years until Romans captured Surus at the battle of Zama in 202 BCE. 37 Once captured, the Romans gave Surus an honorable discharge, and he lived out his remaining years pastured at an estate outside of Rome. 38 Even after Surus died, though, Roman historians and dramatists immortalized him in their literature.

The extant mentions of Surus from Latin literature are uniquely humorous, which implies that Roman perceptions of Surus were emotionally loaded. Q. Ennius, one of the earliest Latin historians, mentions Surus in his fragmentary history. This notable mention of Hannibal’s one-tusked elephant reads: unum surum Surus ferre, tamen defendere possent, or “Surus bore one stake, and nevertheless [the Carthaginians] were able to fend.” 39 Here, Ennius makes a play on words by juxtaposing the Latin word for Syrian, surus, with sūrus, meaning “stake.” 40 This use not only establishes that Latin-speaking people were familiar with Surus’ name in the time of Ennius, but also denotes an anxious Roman attitude towards this ferocious Syrian elephant’s one ivory stake. Roman soldiers were accustomed to fighting with stakes, suri, during the Punic Wars. 41 The clever pun that Ennius employs in this line — whether it is original wordplay coined by Ennius or had already functioned as a pet-name for the distinctly large and formidable elephant — implies that his Roman audience c. 200 BCE would have remembered that Surus gored many men with his tusk during the war. 42

Ten years later, Plautus uses Surus the elephant as the butt of a longer joke in the Pseudolus, which was shown for the first time in 191 BCE. 43 In Act IV, Pseudolus the “the trickster” takes on the name Surus in an attempt to dupe Ballio into giving him a token. The joke continues thus:

Pseudolus with his witty trick, crassis suris, and magnis pedibus has trumped, or rather, tread over Ballio with his thick, elephant-like calves and giant feet. In addition, this joke is about how even a mention of Surus is able to freeze Ballios heart in fear. Even ten years after the Second Punic War, Surus the elephant takes on a new identity in Roman culture, specifically that of a bygone foe. In referencing this specific pachyderm, Plautus assumes that the Romans could find levity and possibly even relief in an anecdote that alludes to the still-renowned military authority of Surus. This joke is longer than Ennius’, which implies that Surus was a more laughable topic after the Second Punic War’s resolution. Still, all of these Latin references to Surus describe the destructive monstrosity of Hannibal’s mount. It is clear through Plautus’ and Ennius’ mentions of Surus that although the elephant was a terrifying threat to Rome, he was also memorable as an absurdly large opponent that attracted a need for comic relief. In bamboozlement, Ballio exclaims, “I’ faith that Surus too has already set my heart a-freezing that received the token from him!” thus concluding the joke. 45

Surus, aided by unique physical characteristics and Seleucid stock, became a prominent symbol of Carthaginian endurance during the Second Punic War. Through Hannibalic coinage and literary references from decades after the Second Punic War, Surus maintains his identity as a formidable weapon of Hannibal. For Carthaginians, Surus was synonymous with Carthage’s great struggle to regain authority over the Mediterranean. To Hannibal, he was a well-trained protector and a companion in battle. To Romans, Surus was a formidable opponent that earned military respect from his opponents and incited their anxiety. Even Cato the Elder, a vehement enemy of Carthage, described Surus as an able defender of Carthage in his Annals. 46 This grand gesture of respect not only marks the will of Rome to destroy Carthage, but the genuine respect that Rome had for Surus’ valor in battle.

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