How the Fighting pigs of Ancient Rome easily defeated any army

Throughout the history of humanity, various animals have been effectively tamed and used for completely unexpected, seemingly unexpected needs. If everything is still clear with dogs, horses, and cattle, then the use of elephants, for example, is much more exotic. Man is an incredibly resourceful being. Pigeons, dogs, bears, camels, and even bees have been used in battle at various times! The ancient Romans went even further; they figured out how to use it in battle… The pig! Rome had reached such heights in that field that it could easily defeat any army.

Rome’s Secret Weapon

The ancient Greeks, like the Eastern peoples, widely used war elephants. These huge animals were formidable weapons in battle. Their massive size played an important role in this. Powerful combat vehicles crashed into enemy armies, scattering enemy soldiers like Skittles. Those who did not escape died under these giants’ feet. But you can always find a counterexample to every trick. That’s what happened in the first half of the 3rd century BC – the Romans found a solution. They defeated an army with war elephants and turned these formidable animals into a stampede so that they trampled their army.

Pigs have become this secret formidable weapon. Pliny the Elder wrote that elephants are frightened by the slightest squeal of a pig. The Romans were the first to release pigs onto the battlefield. The screeching caused the elephants to become so terrified that, in a panic, trying to escape, they crushed their people to death. If an army with war elephants besieged a Roman fortress, it was enough to hang a couple of pigs on the city’s walls, and victory was assured.

The Romans won their famous victory over the greatest legendary commander, Pyrrhus of Epirus, thanks to pigs. The strategy was as simple as possible: the pigs broke into the enemy’s ranks uncontrollably, causing confusion and pandemonium. According to Pseudo-Callisthenes or The History of Alexander, Alexander the Great first learned about pigs as a secret weapon against elephants from Time.

Over Time, elephants were taught to resist this tactic. They were taught not to fear pig screeching and to feel comfortable in battle, raising elephants with piglets. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M .For the full article. This forced the Byzantines, the heirs of the Roman legacy, to change their tactics. They learned it especially well, especially the hard way, in their many battles with the Abbasids and Umayyads.

Scary War Weapon: The Flaming Pigs of Megara

It wasn’t just the Romans who used pigs as a fighting force. This was also done by the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas in 266 BC. The Battle of Megara was then almost lost to them. Someone devised a brilliant idea: the pigs were doused with tar, set on fire, and released towards the enemy army. The elephants, of course, turned into a stampede. They trampled to death most of the soldiers of their army. An all-consuming flame completed the route. This event was described by military historians Polyaenus and Aelian.

Lucretius wrote in De Rerum Natura “The Nature of Things” (1st century BC) about these “fiery pigs”: “Elephants, inflamed by indiscriminate slaughter, turned wild and proved useless. They threw their entire army into confusion. The massive animals scared the horses, and the riders couldn’t calm them down. The elephants tossed the horses along with the riders and trampled them underfoot. The horses had their sides and bellies ripped open, hitting them from below with their tusks.”

The practice of fighting pigs became so widespread that it was immortalized on a Roman coin. The coin depicted an elephant on one side and a pig on the other.

Over Time, the practice lost its power

The reduction in the use of pigs in combat went hand in hand with the reduction in the use of war elephants. The elephant population was rapidly declining as they were hunted and caught. In addition to all this, people have been destroying the natural habitat of these animals since ancient times, which also did not benefit their growth. War elephants have almost been discontinued.

Naturally, after that, pigs were useless. After all, it was difficult to use them in battle, even as an arson attack on the enemy. Firstly, the burnt pig did not survive. Secondly, there was often no time to train piglets well. Therefore, they often harmed their soldiers. The animals were getting out of control and wreaking havoc and destruction in their camp.

Some historians question the veracity of those sources that described the tactics of using combat pigs. But completely different ancient chroniclers wrote too much about it. In addition, since elephants were a continuation of the Hellenistic tradition, various measures and countermeasures were developed over the centuries to counter this formidable force. So pigs could be one of many such measures.