A condemned prisoner being dismembered by an elephant in Ceylon. Drawing from An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon by Robert Knox (1681)

Crushing by elephant was for thousands of years a common method of execution for those condemned to death in south and southeast Asia, and particularly in India. Elephants employed in this manner were used to crush, dismember, or torture captives in public executions. The use of elephants to execute captives often attracted the horrified interest of European travellers, and was recorded in numerous contemporary journals and accounts of life in Asia. The practice was eventually suppressed by the European empires that colonised the region in the 18th and 19th centuries. An Execution by an Eliphant, from An Historical Relation Of the Island Ceylon by Robert Knox (London, 1681) File links The following pages link to this file: Wikipedia:Unusual articles Crushing by elephant Template talk:Feature/archive1 Wikipedia:Todays featured article/April 2004 Wikipedia:Todays featured article/April... An Execution by an Eliphant, from An Historical Relation Of the Island Ceylon by Robert Knox (London, 1681) File links The following pages link to this file: Wikipedia:Unusual articles Crushing by elephant Template talk:Feature/archive1 Wikipedia:Todays featured article/April 2004 Wikipedia:Todays featured article/April... Depiction of an execution by an elephant, from An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon is a book written by the English trader and sailor Robert Knox in 1681, describing his experiences some years earlier on the South Asian island now best known... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... Map of South Asia (see note on Kashmir) South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is a southern geopolitical region of the Asian continent comprising territories on and in proximity to the Indian subcontinent. ... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Genera and Species Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Elephas antiquus † Elephas beyeri † Elephas celebensis † Elephas cypriotes † Elephas ekorensis † Elephas falconeri † Elephas iolensis † Elephas planifrons † Elephas platycephalus † Elephas recki † Stegodon † Mammuthus † Elephantidae (the elephants) is a family of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea...

Cultural aspects

The use of elephants as executioners was inextricably bound up with the use of the animals as symbols of royal power. The intelligence, domestication and versatility of elephants gave them considerable advantages over the wild animals such as lions and bears often used by the Romans as executioners. Elephants could be trained to execute prisoners in a variety of ways, prolonging the agony by subjecting captives to a slow death by torture or killing the victim quickly by stepping on his head. Most importantly, they were under the constant control of a driver or mahout, enabling a ruler to grant a last-minute reprieve and thus display his merciful qualities.^[1] A mahout is a person who drives an elephant. ...

Several such exercises of mercy are recorded to have occurred in various Asian kingdoms. The kings of Siam trained their elephants to roll the convicted person "about the ground rather slowly so that he is not badly hurt." The Mughal sultan Akbar is said to have "used this technique to chastise 'rebels' and then in the end the prisoners, presumably much chastened, were given their lives."^[1] On one occasion, Akbar was recorded to have had a man thrown to the elephants to suffer five days of such treatment before pardoning him.^[2] Elephants were even sometimes used in a kind of trial by ordeal in which the condemned prisoner was released if he managed to fend off the elephant.^[1] For the country formerly called Siam see Thailand SIAM is an acronym for Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. ... The Mughal Empire (alternative spelling Mogul, which is the origin of the word Mogul) of India was founded by Babur in 1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First Battle of Panipat. ... The Sultan in Disneys Aladdin A Sultan (Arabic: سلطان) is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. ... Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar (Persian: جلال الدین محمد اکبر), (alternative spellings include Jellaladin, Celalettin) also known as Akbar the Great (Akbār-e-Azam) (October 15, 1542 – October 27, 1605) was the son of Humayun whom he succeeded to become ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1556 until 1605. ... Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to a painful task. ...

The use of elephants in this fashion went beyond the common royal power to dispense life and death. Elephants have long been used as symbols of royal authority (and still are in some places, such as Thailand, where white elephants are held in reverence). Their use as instruments of state power sent the message that the ruler was able to preside over very powerful creatures who were under his total command. The ruler was thus seen as maintaining a moral and spiritual domination over wild beasts, adding to his authority and mystique among his subjects.^[1] A royal white elephant A white elephant (also albino elephant) is a rare kind of elephant. ...

Death by elephant is still common in parts of Africa and South Asia where humans and elephants co-exist. In Sri Lanka alone, 50-100 people are killed annually in clashes between humans and elephants.^[3] However, such fatalities are the result of wild elephants attacking humans rather than tame elephants being used by humans to kill other humans. Being crushed by captive elephants is also a major occupational hazard for elephant keepers in zoos; several such fatalities are reported annually.^[4] A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or knowing man) under the family Hominidae (known as the great apes). ...

While working as a police officer for the British colonial government in Burma in 1926, George Orwell was forced to deal with an incident in which a domestic elephant went “rogue” and killed a man by stepping on him. Orwell describes the incident in his famous essay “Shooting an Elephant”, noting that “The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit.” It has been suggested that Eileen OShaughnessy be merged into this article or section. ... Shooting an Elephant is an essay by George Orwell written during the autumn of 1936. ...

Geographical scope

Crushing by elephant has been utilised in many parts of the world, by both Western and Asian empires. The earliest records of such executions date back to the classical period. However, the practice was already well established by that time and continued until only about a century before the present day. This article describes the ancient classical period: for the classical period in music (second half of the 18th century): see Classical music era. ...

Although African elephants are significantly bigger than Asian elephants, African powers did not make nearly as much use of the animals in warfare or ceremonial affairs. This can be attributed to the fact that the African elephant is much less easily tamed than its Asian equivalent. Some ancient powers in Africa did make use of elephants, but they employed the now-extinct North African subspecies Loxodonta (africana) pharaoensis (see the article on War elephants for an overview). The use of tamed elephants was thus largely confined to the parts of the world inhabited (or formerly inhabited) by Asian elephants. Species Loxodonta adaurora (extinct) Loxodonta africana Loxodonta cyclotis African elephants are the two species of elephants in the Loxodonta genus, one of the two existing genera in Elephantidae. ... Binomial name Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758 Asian Elephant range The Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), sometimes known as by the name of its nominate subspecies the Indian Elephant, is one of the three living species of elephant, and the only living species of the genus Elephas. ... Indian war elephant, relief at Mathura, 2nd century BC War elephants were important, although not widespread, weapons in ancient military history. ...

Asian powers

West Asia

Executions by elephants were utilised by a variety of West Asian imperial powers during the medieval period. The Byzantine, Sassanid, Seljuq and Timurid empires all utilised the method.^[1] When the Sassanid king Chosroes II, who had a harem of 3,000 wives and 12,000 female slaves, demanded as wife Hadiqah, the daughter of the Christian Arab Na'aman, Na'aman refused to permit his Christian daughter to enter the harem of a Zoroastrian, and for this refusal he was trampled to death by an elephant. Byzantine Empire (native Greek name: - Basileia tōn Romaiōn) is the term conventionally used since the 19th century to describe the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. ... The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Empire (Persian: Sasanian) is the name used for the fourth Iranian dynasty, and the second Persian Empire (226 - 651). ... The Seljuqs (also Seldjuk, Seldjuq, Seljuk, sometimes also Seljuq Turks; in modern Turkish Selçuklular; in Persian سلجوقيان Saljūqiyān; in Arabic سلجوق Saljūq, or السلاجقة al-Salājiqa) were a dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. ... Timurids Map The Timurids were a mixed Turkic-Mongol and Persian (Turco) dynasty of Central Asia established by Timur (Tamerlane). ... Sassanid Empire at its greatest extent The Sassanid dynasty (also Sassanian) was the name given to the kings of Persia during the era of the second Persian Empire, from 224 until 651, when the last Sassanid shah, Yazdegerd III, lost a 14-year struggle to drive out the Umayyad Caliphate... Khosrau II, Parvez (the Victorious), king of Persia, son of Hormizd IV, grandson of Khosrau I, 590 – 628. ... Zoroastrianism was adapted from an earlier, polytheistic faith by Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) in Persia very roughly around 1000 BC (although, in the absence of written records, some scholars estimates are as late as 600 BC). ...

The practice appears to have been adopted in parts of the Muslim Middle East. Rabbi Petachiah of Ratisbon, a twelfth-century Jewish traveler, reported an execution by this means during his stay in Seljuk-ruled northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq): A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbÄ«;; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbÄ«) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished, (in knowledge). In the ancient Judean schools (and among Sefaradim today) the sages... Also called Petachiah ben Yakov, Moses Petachiah, or Petachiah of Regensburg; Bohemian rabbi of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination... The Seljuqs (also Seldjuk, Seldjuq, Seljuk, sometimes also Seljuq Turks; in modern Turkish Selçuklular; in Persian سلجوقيان SaljÅ«qiyān; in Arabic سلجوق SaljÅ«q, or السلاجقة al-Salājiqa) were a dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey. ...

At Nineveh there was an elephant. Its head is not protruding. It is big, eats about two wagon loads of straw at once; its mouth is in its breast, and when it wants to eat it protrudes its lip about two cubits, takes up the straw with it, and puts it in its mouth. When the sultan condemns anyone to death, they say to the elephant, "this person is guilty." It then seizes him with its lip, casts him aloft and slays him. [5]

Image File history File links Cquote1. ... , For other uses, see Nineveh (disambiguation). ... Cubit is the name for any one of many units of measure used by various ancient peoples. ... Image File history File links Cquote2. ...

South Asia

Sri Lanka

Elephants were widely used across the Indian subcontinent and south-east Asia as a method of execution. The English sailor Robert Knox, writing in 1681, described a method of execution by elephant which he had seen while being held captive in Sri Lanka: Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... A sailor is a member of the crew of a ship or boat. ... Robert Knox in the frontispiece of An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, 1681 Robert Knox (1642-1720) was a sea captain in the service of the British East India Company. ... Events March 4 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania. ...

The King makes use of them for Executioners; they will run their Teeth [tusks] through the body, and then taer [sic] it in pieces, and throw it limb from limb. They have sharp Iron with a socket with three edges, which they put on their Teeth at such times... [6]

The 19th century traveller James Emerson Tennent comments that "a Kandyan [Sri Lankan] chief, who was witness to such scenes, has assured us that the elephant never once applied his tusks, but, placing his foot on the prostrate victim, plucked off his limbs in succession by a sudden movement of his trunk."^[7] Knox's book depicts exactly this method of execution in a famous drawing, " An Execution by an Eliphant." Image File history File links Cquote1. ... With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual, and contrasts with soul, personality and behavior. ... Image File history File links Cquote2. ... Sir James Emerson Tennent, 1st Baronet (7 April 1804–6 March 1869), born James Emerson, was an English politician and traveller. ... An Execution by an Eliphant, from An Historical Relation Of the Island Ceylon by Robert Knox (London, 1681) File links The following pages link to this file: Wikipedia:Unusual articles Crushing by elephant Template talk:Feature/archive1 Wikipedia:Todays featured article/April 2004 Wikipedia:Todays featured article/April...

Writing in 1850, the British diplomat Sir Henry Charles Sirr described a visit to one of the elephants that had been used by Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last king of Kandy, to execute criminals. Crushing by elephant had been abolished by the British after they overthrew the Kandyan kingdom in 1815 but the king's execution elephant was still alive and, evidently, well remembered his former duties. Sirr comments: 1850 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Henry Charles Sirr (1807-1872) was a British lawyer, diplomat and writer. ... Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (1780-January 30, 1832) was the last monarch of the kingdom of Kandy in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka. ... The Temple of the Tooth Relic in Kandy Kandy (මහ නුවර in Sinhala கண்டி in Tamil) is a city in the centre of Sri Lanka. ... The Battle of New Orleans 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

During the native dynasty it was the practice to train elephants to put criminals to death by trampling upon them, the creatures being taught to prolong the agony of the wretched sufferers by crushing the limbs, avoiding the vital parts. With the last tyrant king of Candy, this was a favourite mode of execution and as one of the elephant executioners was at the former capital during our sojourn there we were particularly anxious to test the creature's sagacity and memory. The animal was mottled and of enormous size, and was quietly standing there with his keeper seated upon his neck; the noble who accompanied us desired the man to dismount and stand on one side. The chief then gave the word of command, ordering the creature to 'slay the wretch!' The elephant raised his trunk, and twined it, as if around a human being; the creature then made motions as if he were depositing the man on the earth before him, then slowly raised his fore-foot, placing it alternately upon the spots where the limbs of the sufferer would have been. This he continued to do for some minutes; then, as if satisfied that the bones must be crushed, the elephant raised his trunk high upon his head and stood motionless; the chief then ordered him to 'complete his work,' and the creature immediately placed one foot, as if upon the man's abdomen, and the other upon his head, apparently using his entire strength to crush and terminate the wretch's misery. [8] Image File history File links Cquote1. ...

Image File history File links Cquote2. ...

India

Louis Rousselet described this execution in "Le Tour du Monde" in 1868.

Elephants were used as executioners of choice in India for many centuries. Hindu and Muslim rulers executed tax evaders, rebels and enemy soldiers alike "under the feet of elephants."^[1] The ancient Manu Smriti or Laws of Manu, written down around AD 200, prescribed execution by elephants for a number of offences. If property was stolen, for instance, "the king should have any thieves caught in connection with its disappearance executed by an elephant."^[9] Download high resolution version (650x942, 344 KB)A Woodcut of an execution by elephant published in the 1868 issue of Le Tour Du Monde This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Download high resolution version (650x942, 344 KB)A Woodcut of an execution by elephant published in the 1868 issue of Le Tour Du Monde This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For other uses, see number 200. ...

During the Mughal era, "it was a common mode of execution in those days to have the offender trampled underfoot by an elephant."^[10] Captain Alexander Hamilton, writing in 1727, described how the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan ordered an offending military commander to be carried "to the Elephant Garden, and there to be executed by an Elephant, which is reckoned to be a shameful and terrible Death."^[11] The Mughal Emperor Humayun ordered the crushing by elephant of an imam he mistakenly believed to be critical of his reign.^[12] Some monarchs also adopted this form of execution for their own entertainment. Another Mughal ruler, the emperor Jahangir, is said to have ordered a huge number of criminals to be crushed for his amusement. The French traveller François Bernier, who witnessed such executions, recorded his appalment at the pleasure that the emperor derived from this cruel punishment.^[2] Nor was crushing the only method used by the Mughals' execution elephants; in the Mughal sultanate of Delhi, elephants were trained to slice prisoners to pieces "with pointed blades fitted to their tusks."^[1] The Mughal Empire (alternative spelling Mogul, which is the origin of the word Mogul) of India was founded by Babur in 1526, when he defeated Ibrahim Lodi, the last of the Delhi Sultans at the First Battle of Panipat. ... Alexander Hamilton was an 18th century Scottish sea captain, privateer and merchant. ... Events 1727 to 1800 - Lt. ... Shahbuddin Mohammed Shah Jahan (also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan. ... The Mughal Empire was the dominant power in the Indian subcontinent between the mid-16th century and the end of the 17th century. ... Nasiruddin Humayun (March 6, 1508 – February 22, 1556), second Mughal Emperor, ruled in India from 1530–1540 and 1555–1556. ... Imam (Arabic: إمام ,Persian: امام ) is an Arabic word meaning Leader. The ruler of a country might be called the Imam, for example. ... Nuruddin Jahangir (Persian: نور الدین جہھانگر) (August 31, 1569 – October 28, 1627) was the ruler of the Mughal Empire from 1605 until 1627. ... François Bernier (1625 – 1688) was a French physician and traveler, born at Joué-Etiau /Anjou. ... This article is about the metropolis of Delhi. ...

Other Indian polities also carried out executions by elephant. The Maratha leader Shambhuji ordered this form of death for a number of conspirators, including the Maratha official Anaji Datto in the late seventeenth century.^[13] Another Maratha leader, the general Santaji, inflicted the punishment for breaches in military discipline. The contemporary historian Khafi Khan reported that "for a trifling offense he [Santaji] would cast a man under the feet of an elephant."^[14] The Marāthās is a collective term referring to an Indo Aryan group of Hindu, Marathi-speaking castes of warriors and peasants hailing mostly from the present-day state of Maharashtra, who created a substantial empire, covering a major part of India, in the late 17th and 18th centuries...

The early 19th century writer Robert Kerr relates how the king of Goa "keeps certain elephants for the execution of malefactors. When one of these is brought forth to dispatch a criminal, if his keeper desires that the offender be destroyed speedily, this vast creature will instantly crush him to atoms under his foot; but if desired to torture him, will break his limbs successively, as men are broken on the wheel."^[15] The naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon cited this flexibility of purpose as evidence that elephants were capable of "human reasoning, [rather] than a simple, natural instinct."^[16] Robert Kerr (1755 - October 11, 1813) was a scientific writer and translator from Scotland. ... For other uses, see Goa (disambiguation). ... Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, by François-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775). ...

Such executions were often held in public as a warning to any who might transgress. To that end, many of the elephants were especially large, often weighing in excess of nine tons. The executions were intended to be gruesome and, by all accounts, they often were. They were sometimes preceded by torture publicly inflicted by the same elephant used for the execution. An account of one such torture-and-execution at Baroda in 1814 has been preserved in The Percy Anecdotes: Vadodara, also known as Baroda, is the third-most populated town in Gujarat after Ahmedabad and Surat (the three towns with a population of over 1 million in Gujarat). ... 1814 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

The man was a slave, and two days before had murdered his master, brother to a native chieftain, called Ameer Sahib. About eleven o'clock the elephant was brought out, with only the driver on his back, surrounded by natives with bamboos in their hands. The criminal was placed three yards behind on the ground, his legs tied by three ropes, which were fastened to a ring on the right hind leg of the animal. At every step the elephant took, it jerked him forward, and every eight or ten steps must have dislocated another limb, for they were loose and broken when the elephant had proceeded five hundred yards. The man, though covered in mud, showed every sign of life, and seemed to be in the most excruciating torments. After having been tortured in this manner for about an hour, he was taken to the outside of the town, when the elephant, which is instructed for such purposes, was backed, and put his foot on the head of the criminal.[17]

The use of elephants as executioners continued well into the latter half of the 19th century. During an expedition to central India in 1868, Louis Rousselet described the execution of a criminal by an elephant. A sketch was made of the execution showing the condemned being forced to place his head upon a pedestal, and then being held there while an elephant crushed his head underfoot. The sketch was made into a woodcut and printed in "Le Tour du Monde", a widely circulated French journal of travel and adventure, as well as foreign journals such as Harper's Weekly.^[18] Image File history File links Cquote1. ... Image File history File links Cquote2. ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Four horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Dürer. ... Harpers Weekly Inauguration Number 1897 Harpers Weekly (A Journal of Civilization) was an American political magazine published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916. ...

The growing power of the British Empire led to the decline and eventual end of elephant executions in India. Writing in 1914, Eleanor Maddock noted that in Kashmir, since the arrival of Europeans, "many of the old customs are disappearing - and one of these is the dreadful custom of the execution of criminals by an elephant trained for the purpose and which was known by the hereditary name of 'Gunga Rao'."^[19] The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... For the dispute concerning this region, see Kashmir conflict Shown in green is the region under Pakistani administration. ...

South-east Asia

The Indians had no monopoly on death by elephant, as it is reported to have been a widely used method of execution in south-east Asia as well. Elephants are said to have been used for executions in Burma from the earliest historical periods^[20] as well as in the kingdom of Champa on the other side of the Indochinese peninsula.^[21] In Siam, elephants were trained to throw the condemned into the air before trampling them to death.^[1] The journal of John Crawfurd records another method of execution by elephant in the kingdom of Cochin-China (modern south Vietnam), where he served as a British envoy in 1821: Rough location of Champas core territories. ... John Crawfurd (August 13, 1783 - May 11, 1868) was a Scottish physician, and colonial administrator and author. ... Cochin China (also known as Cochinchina Chu Nom 交趾支那 or in French, Cochinchine) was the southernmost part of Vietnam beside Cambodia. ... The coronation banquet for George IV 1821 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

July 10. - ... Ongbo, our guardian, called upon us, and informed us that on the 12th eleven thieves were to be executed by means of his Excellency's favourite elephant. On these occasions the criminal is tied to a stake, and the elephant runs down upon him and crushes him to death. [22]

Image File history File links Cquote1. ... Image File history File links Cquote2. ...

Western empires

The Romans, Carthaginians and Macedonian Greeks occasionally utilised elephants for executions and also made use of war elephants for military purposes (most famously so in the case of Hannibal). Deserters or prisoners of war as well as military criminals were put to death under the foot of an elephant. Several cases are recorded by ancient chroniclers. The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government. ... Ruins of Roman-era Carthage For other uses, see Carthage (disambiguation). ... The Ancient Macedonians were the inhabitants of Macedon and adjacent regions in ancient times. ... Indian war elephant, relief at Mathura, 2nd century BC War elephants were important, although not widespread, weapons in ancient military history. ... Hannibal is one of the most common prenames in Punic and we know several military commanders (strategos) with this prename during the Punic Wars, while their family names or nicknames are often not recorded. ...

Perdiccas, who became regent of Macedon on the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, had mutineers from the faction of Meleager thrown to the elephants to be crushed in the city of Babylon.^[23] The Roman writer Quintus Curtius Rufus relates the story in his Historiae Alexandri Magni: "Perdiccas saw that they [the mutineers] were paralyzed and at his mercy. He withdrew from the main body some 300 men who had followed Meleager at the time when he burst from the first meeting held after Alexander's death, and before the eyes of the entire army he threw them to the elephants. All were trampled to death beneath the feet of the beasts..." ^[24] Perdiccas (d. ... Macedons regions and towns Macedon or Macedonia (from Greek ; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was the name of an ancient kingdom in the northern-most part of ancient Greece, bordering the kingdom of Epirus on the west and the region of Thrace to the east. ... Alexander the Great (Greek: ),[1] Megas Alexandros; July 356 BC–June 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III, king of Macedon (336–323 BC), was one of, if not the most successful military commanders in history, conquering most of the known world before his death; he is regarded as... On his way from Ecbatana to Babylon, Alexander the Great fights and crushes the Cossaeans. ... Meleager (d. ... Babylon was a city in Mesopotamia, the ruins of which can be found in present-day Babil Province, Iraq, about 50 miles south of Baghdad. ... Quintus Curtius Rufus was a Roman historical writer in the first or second century AD, generally thought to have written under the reign of Claudius. ...

Similarly, the Roman writer Valerius Maximus records how the general Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus "after King Perseus was vanquished [in 167 BC], for the same fault (desertion) threw men under elephants to be trampled ... And indeed military discipline needs this kind of severe and abrupt punishment, because this is how strength of arms stands firm, which, when it falls away from the right course, will be subverted."^[25] Valerius Maximus was a Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes. ... Lucius Aemilius Paulus Macedonicus (229 BC-160 BC) was a Roman general and politician. ... Coin of Perseus of Macedon Perseus was the last king of the Antigonid dynasty, who ruled the successor state in Macedon created upon the death of Alexander the Great. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC - 160s BC - 150s BC140s BC 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC Years: 172 BC 171 BC 170 BC 169 BC 168 BC - 167 BC - 166 BC 165 BC 164...

There are fewer records of elephants being used as straightforward executioners for the civil population. One such example is mentioned by Josephus and the deuterocanonical book of 3 Maccabees in connection with the Egyptian Jews, though the story is probably apocryphal. 3 Maccabees describes an attempt by Ptolemy IV Philopator (ruled 221-204 BC) to enslave and brand Egypt's Jews with the symbol of Dionysus. When the majority of the Jews resisted, the king is said to have rounded them up and ordered them to be trampled on by elephants.^[26] The mass execution was ultimately thwarted, supposedly by the intervention of angels, following which Ptolemy took an altogether more forgiving attitude towards his Jewish subjects.^[27] A representation of Flavius Josephus, a woodcutting in John C. Winstons translation of his works Josephus ( 37 – 100 AD/CE), who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Flavius Josephus[1], was a 1st century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived... The deuterocanonical books are the books that Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Ethiopian Orthodoxy, and Oriental Orthodoxy include in the Old Testament that were not part of the Jewish Tanakh. ... The Biblical book 3 Maccabees is found in most Orthodox Bibles as a part of the deuterocanonical books. ... This article incorporates text from the public domain 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia Egyptian Jews constitute perhaps the oldest Jewish community in the world. ... In Judeo-Christian theologies, apocrypha refers to religious Sacred text that have questionable authenticity or are otherwise disputed. ... Ptolemy IV Philopator Under the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator ( Greek: Πτολεμαίος Φιλοπάτωρ, reigned 221-204 BC), son of Ptolemy III and Berenice II of Egypt, the decline of the Ptolemaic kingdom began. ... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC - 220s BC - 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC Years: 226 BC 225 BC 224 BC 223 BC 222 BC - 221 BC - 220 BC 219 BC... Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC - 200s BC - 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC Years: 209 BC 208 BC 207 BC 206 BC 205 BC - 204 BC - 203 BC 202 BC... Image:Dionysos panthære satyre. ... The Annunciation - the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus (El Greco, 1575) An angel is a supernatural being found in many religions. ...

References

   

Depiction of an execution by an elephant, from An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon is a book written by the English trader and sailor Robert Knox in 1681, describing his experiences some years earlier on the South Asian island now best known... Image File history File links LinkFA-star. ...