Imagine, for a moment, you are a Roman soldier at war. In the midst of battle, you are confronted with an enormous and loudly trumpeting creature you’ve never seen before. It appears to have sharp spears protruding from either side of its mouth and a bizarre, powerful limb extending from its face. Armed men ride atop this towering beast, which, running toward you at speed, is crushing your comrades underfoot. Roman soldiers were reportedly terrified the first time they faced war elephants on the battlefield. It’s hard not to feel bad for the elephants too, as using animals this way in war is undoubtedly cruel. But Rome’s enemies, particularly various Hellenistic kingdoms and the Carthaginians, did indeed use war elephants
