Bactrian Bronze Elephant, 200 BCE - 300 CE
Bronze
height 68.6 cm
height 27 in
height 27 in
FZ.381
Bactria or Bactriana was the ancient Greek name of a historical region in Central Asia, extending in what are today the modern-day countries of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. This region...
Bactria or Bactriana was the ancient Greek name of a historical region in Central Asia, extending in what are today the modern-day countries of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
This region played a major role in Central Asian history and the civilisation which flourished in the area was characterised by monumental architecture, social complexity and extremely distinctive cultural artefacts.
The Bactrians used extensively elephants in war. As noted by Bannikov and Popov in their essay on Bactrian War Elephants, starting with the Alexander’s epoch the war elephant of Indian origin became the integral part of the ancient historical literature. The record of it is to be found in descriptions of the Battle of Gaugamela, of the Battle of Hydaspes and also in many battles between the Diadochi, which followed after this Macedonian conqueror’s death. Bactria had been the province of the Seleucid kingdom for a long time. Right from here the war elephant contingents were delivered for Syrian army. It is known that on March of 273 BC the 20 four-footed giants were send by the Bactrian governor to Syria to Antiochus' II army, who at the same time waged war with the Ptolemaic Egypt. In the middle of the IIIrd century BC Bactria became an independent state. Undoubtedly that the first Greco- Bactrian rulers already had war elephants, which they used in battles against their neighbours. It's a difficult to say which was the role of elephants in the war of independence in Bactria. We know that in the middle of the IIIrd century Diodotus I proclamed himself as a king and his son Diodotus II provided anti-Seleucid policy in an alliance with Parthians. However the earlier literature illustrations about presence of war elephants in the Greco-Bactrian army concerns the reign time of the third ruler of this state Eutydemus I. During his Eastern campaign the Seleucid king Antioch III the Great set a problem to get back the lost eastern provinces, mainly Parthia and Bactria. The result of this campaign was making the peace agreement with Eutydemus (206 BC), under which conditions the Greco-Bactrian king had to give all their elephants out.
Reference: Andrei Valerievich Bannikov and Artem Anatolievich Popov, "War Elephants in Greco-Bactrian and Indo-greek Armies", World Applied Sciences Journal 27 (9): 1206-1211, 2013
This region played a major role in Central Asian history and the civilisation which flourished in the area was characterised by monumental architecture, social complexity and extremely distinctive cultural artefacts.
The Bactrians used extensively elephants in war. As noted by Bannikov and Popov in their essay on Bactrian War Elephants, starting with the Alexander’s epoch the war elephant of Indian origin became the integral part of the ancient historical literature. The record of it is to be found in descriptions of the Battle of Gaugamela, of the Battle of Hydaspes and also in many battles between the Diadochi, which followed after this Macedonian conqueror’s death. Bactria had been the province of the Seleucid kingdom for a long time. Right from here the war elephant contingents were delivered for Syrian army. It is known that on March of 273 BC the 20 four-footed giants were send by the Bactrian governor to Syria to Antiochus' II army, who at the same time waged war with the Ptolemaic Egypt. In the middle of the IIIrd century BC Bactria became an independent state. Undoubtedly that the first Greco- Bactrian rulers already had war elephants, which they used in battles against their neighbours. It's a difficult to say which was the role of elephants in the war of independence in Bactria. We know that in the middle of the IIIrd century Diodotus I proclamed himself as a king and his son Diodotus II provided anti-Seleucid policy in an alliance with Parthians. However the earlier literature illustrations about presence of war elephants in the Greco-Bactrian army concerns the reign time of the third ruler of this state Eutydemus I. During his Eastern campaign the Seleucid king Antioch III the Great set a problem to get back the lost eastern provinces, mainly Parthia and Bactria. The result of this campaign was making the peace agreement with Eutydemus (206 BC), under which conditions the Greco-Bactrian king had to give all their elephants out.
Reference: Andrei Valerievich Bannikov and Artem Anatolievich Popov, "War Elephants in Greco-Bactrian and Indo-greek Armies", World Applied Sciences Journal 27 (9): 1206-1211, 2013