The elephants were more of a scare tactic than anything else.
When you consider what it takes to feed an elephant daily, and the fact that they just aren’t mountain-climbers....this was mostly a stupid idea. If you notice....no one after this event....ever tries to use elephants as a military threat again. I think they kinda learned a lesson from the episode.
Stinkbeetle?
Huh?
Q-Why did Hannibal cross the Alps?
A-To get to the other side of course!
Sorry, couldn’t help it.
Interesting article.
There are several decent looking documentaries on the subject at YouTube. All are 45 mins or longer:
The True Story of HANNIBAL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJrShQRh8Ns
HANNIBAL - THE RISE AND FALL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VPkHytuyKQ
HANNIBAL: The Man, The Myth, The Mystery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DQgvvNvOvA
HANNIBAL - CARTHAGE vs ROME:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpIulQs807s
Whatever happened to the Hannibal movie with Vin Diesel as the lead? Didn’t care for the casting, but I still would see it nonetheless.
Back home, however, he finally did manage to lost the Big One against Scipio at Zama. The Romans learned to open spaces in their ranks for maddened elephants, who were dispensed with in the rear with weapons more suited to elephant hunting than human combat. I had a hard time finding out how, exactly, the Romans maddened them until I read Brian Caven's The Punic Wars. As well as having enormously tough hide, elephants could be armored nearly everywhere. One place that couldn't, however, Caven phrased delicately as "under the tail". Elephants poop. And so, at some point in some battle somewhere, some tough old Roman centurion said to himself, "well, nuthin' else is workin'. I think I'm gonna poke this here pilum up that there elephant's butt." The rest...is history.