【简译】希腊与罗马战争中的大象

2022-08-28 13:00 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

In the search for ever more impressive and lethal weapons to shock the enemy and bring total victory the armies of ancient Greece, Carthage, and even sometimes Rome turned to the elephant. Huge, exotic, and frightening the life out of an unprepared enemy they seemed the perfect weapon in an age where developments in warfare were very limited. Unfortunately, impressive though they must have seemed on the battlefield, the cost of acquiring, training, and transporting these creatures, along with their wild unpredictability in the heat of battle, meant that they were used only briefly and not particularly effectively in Mediterranean warfare.

为了寻找更加令人印象深刻和致命的武器来威慑敌人，并赢得全面胜利，古希腊、迦太基，甚至有时罗马的军队都将注意力转向了大象。巨大的、有异国情调的、能使没有准备的敌人感到恐惧的大象，在那个战争发展非常有限的时代，似乎是最完美的武器。不幸的是，尽管它们在战场上看起来令人印象深刻，但获取、训练和运输这些生物的成本，以及它们在战斗中的狂野不可预测性，意味着在地中海战争中只被短暂使用，并不是特别有效。

两种大象的种类

In antiquity, two elephants were known – the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). The latter is now almost extinct and only found in the Gambia; it was smaller than the, at the time unknown, African elephant of central and southern Africa (Loxodonta africana), which explains why ancient writers all claimed the Indian elephant was larger than the African. The Asian elephant became known in Europe following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE and contact with the Mauryan Empire of India. So impressed was Alexander with the war elephants of Porus, who was said to have had a corps of 200 when he fought the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BCE, that he formed his own ceremonial elephant corps. Many of Alexander's successors went one step further and employed them in battle proper. Indeed, the Seleucid Empire made sure to exclusively control the traffic in Asian elephants.

在古代，有两种大象——亚洲象（Elephas maximus）和非洲森林象（Loxodonta cyclotis）。后者现在为极度濒危物种，在冈比亚有少许现存；它比当时未知的非洲中部和南部的非洲象（Loxodonta africana）小，这解释了为什么古代作家都声称印度象比非洲象大。亚洲象在公元前4世纪亚历山大大帝的征服和与印度毛利人帝国的接触后，在欧洲开始为人所知。亚历山大对波鲁斯的战象印象深刻，据说波鲁斯在公元前326年的海达斯佩斯战役中拥有一支包含200头大象的军团，因此他组建了自己的礼宾象队。亚历山大的许多继任者都在战斗中使用大象。事实上，塞琉古帝国确保专门控制亚洲大象的运输。

获取和部署

Elephants, being only available from Africa or Asia, were expensive commodities to acquire for Mediterranean powers. Added to this was the cost of maintaining them and training both the wild elephant and its rider to form some sort of battle order on the field of combat. Then there was the problem of transporting them to where they were needed, although famously, the Carthaginian general Hannibal managed to get at least some of his 37 elephants across the Alps and into Italy in 218 BCE.

大象只能从非洲或亚洲获得，对地中海国家来说是昂贵的商品。此外，驯养野象及其培训骑手以便在战场上形成某种战斗秩序的费用也很高。然后是它们的运输问题，尽管迦太基将军汉尼拔在公元前218年成功地将他的37头大象中的至少一部分大象运输穿过阿尔卑斯山并进入意大利。

Despite the cost and difficulties, and because in antiquity the evolution in weaponry was extremely slow, the attraction of such large animals trampling all over the enemy remained. This meant that military commanders went out of their way to supplement their armies with elephants. Seleukos I Nikator famously swapped parts of his eastern empire to gain 500 elephants from Indian emperor Chandragupta in 305 BCE. The armies of the Antigonids and Ptolemies also fielded Asian elephants, although generally in much smaller numbers. In the 270's BCE, for example, Ptolemy II trained African elephants for use in his army and even appointed a high official to be responsible for them, the elephantarchos. According to Plutarch, 475 elephants took part in the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BCE during the Successor Wars. In 275 BCE, in a battle known as the 'Elephant Victory', Antigonus Gonatas, although outnumbered, used 16 elephants to terrify an army of Gauls into retreat.

尽管成本高昂，困难重重，而且在古代，武器装备的进化极其缓慢，但这种大型动物践踏敌人的吸引力依然存在。这意味着军事指挥官们不遗余力地用大象来补充他们的军队。塞琉古一世在公元前305年用他的东部帝国的一部分与印度皇帝旃陀罗笈多交换了500头大象。安提戈尼德王朝和托勒密王朝的军队也使用了亚洲大象，尽管数量要少得多。例如，在公元前270年，托勒密二世训练非洲大象部署于军队，甚至任命了一个高级官员来负责这些大象，即大象长。根据普鲁塔克的说法，475头大象参加了公元前301年继承人战争期间的伊普苏斯之战。公元前275年，在一场被称为"大象胜利"的战役中，安提柯二世虽然人数不多，但却用16头大象吓退了一支高卢人的军队。

Pyrrhus of Epirus was the first commander to employ elephants in Europe when he used 20 Asian ones in his campaigns in Italy and Sicily from 280 to 275 BCE. There Pyrrhus gained notable victories against the Romans in the battles of Heraclea (280 BCE) and Asculum (279 BCE).

皮洛士是第一个在欧洲使用大象的指挥官，他在公元前280年至275年于意大利和西西里岛的战役中使用了20头亚洲大象。在那里，皮洛士在赫拉克利亚（公元前280年）和阿斯库鲁姆（公元前279年）战役中取得了对罗马人的大胜。

The Carthaginians were the next major users. Able to readily acquire African elephants from the Atlas Forest region they formed an elephant corps from the 260's BCE. These were used in the First and Second Punic Wars against Rome in the mid and late 3rd century BCE, notably in the Battle at the river Tagus in Spain in 220 BCE and at the Battle of Trebia in northern Italy in 218 BCE. Elephants even appeared on Carthaginian coins of the period. After his initial corps died in the winter of 218/217 BCE Hannibal acquired fresh replacements and used elephants again at the siege of Capua in 211 BCE.

迦太基人也是大象主要使用者。他们能够很容易地从阿特拉斯森林地区获得非洲大象，迦太基人在公元前260年组建了一支大象军团。这些大象被用于公元前3世纪中叶和晚期对罗马的第一次和第二次布匿战争，特别是公元前220年在西班牙塔古斯河的战斗和公元前218年在意大利北部的特雷比亚的战斗。大象的形象甚至出现在这一时期的迦太基货币上。公元前218/217年冬天，汉尼拔补充了原先战损的人马，并在公元前211年围攻卡普亚时再次使用大象。

The Romans seem to have been largely unimpressed with the use of elephants and employed them only rarely and in small numbers, usually supplied via Numidia. They were said to have cunningly released pigs to disrupt Pyrrhus' elephants at the Battle of Maleventum in 275 BCE. Even more famously, at the Battle of Zuma in 202 BCE, the Roman general Scipio Africanus allowed Hannibal's 80 elephants to run through gaps purposely made in his infantry lines and then turned the animals around using drums and trumpets to let them cause havoc with the enemy. Nor were elephants any help to the senatorial armies of Scipio and Cato that faced Julius Caesar in North Africa at the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BCE. Elephants were, perhaps strangely, not used by the Romans as transportation of heavy goods either.

罗马人似乎对大象的使用不感兴趣，有时只是很少使用，而且数量不多，这些大象通常来自努米底亚。据说，在公元前275年的马勒文图姆战役中，罗马人狡猾地放出猪来扰乱皮鲁斯的大象。更为著名的是，在公元前202年的祖玛之战中，罗马将军大西庇阿让汉尼拔的80头大象跑过他在步兵线上特意设计的缺口，然后用鼓声和号声让这些动物掉头，让它们对敌人造成破坏。在公元前46年的塔普苏斯战役中，大西庇阿和卡托的元老院军队在北非面对凯撒大帝，大象也没有发挥任何作用。也许很奇怪，大象也没有被罗马人用作重型货物的运输。

There is a curious instance when two elephant corps met where each side was composed of different types. This was at the Battle of Raphia (on the Sinai Peninsula) in 217 BCE between Ptolemy IV and Antiochus III. The former had 73 African elephants against the latter's 102 Asian elephants. The two-elephant corps clashed directly and the smaller-sized African elephants gave way, even if Ptolemy won the battle overall. After a few centuries when elephants were out of vogue, the Sasanians in Persia revived the use of war elephants, fielding the Indian species from the 3rd century CE onwards, albeit, largely for logistics and during sieges.

有一个奇怪的例子，当两支大象军团相遇时，每一方都是由不同的大象类型组成。这是在公元前217年托勒密四世和安提阿克三世之间的拉斐亚之战（在西奈半岛）。前者有73头非洲大象，而后者有102头亚洲大象。两支大象军团直接发生冲突，体型较小的非洲象退缩了，即使托勒密在战斗中总体获胜。在大象不再流行的几个世纪后，波斯的萨珊人恢复了对战象的使用，他们从公元3世纪起就开始使用印度象，尽管主要是用于后勤和围攻期间。

装甲与战场策略

Elephants were dressed for battle in armour which protected their heads and sometimes front. A thick sacking or leather cover could also be hung over the elephant's back to protect its sides. Sword blades or iron points were added to the tusks and bells hung from the body to create as much noise as possible. Early use of elephants in battle by Alexander's successors involved only a rider (mahout) and perhaps a spearman. The rider was crucial as he had trained the animal for years and it would obey only his commands. He controlled the direction the elephant took by applying pressure behinds the animal's ears with his toes. He also had an ankush or hooked stick for this purpose.

大象在战斗中穿上盔甲，保护它们的头部，有时也保护它们的前胸。厚厚的麻袋或皮套也可以挂在大象的背上，以保护它的侧面。剑刃或铁尖被加在象牙上，铃铛挂在象身上，以制造尽可能多的噪音。亚历山大的继任者早期在战斗中使用大象时，只有一个骑手（mahout）和一个矛手。骑士是至关重要的，因为他已经训练了多年的动物，大象只服从他的命令。他通过用脚趾在动物的耳朵后面施加压力来控制大象的行动方向。骑手也有一根钩状的棍子，用于这一目的。

From the 270's a light-weight tower (howdah or thorakia) of wood and leather was strapped to the larger Asian elephant using chains, and protected with shields hanging down its sides. It was typically occupied by up to four javelin or missile throwers. However, it was the elephant itself that was the principal weapon, employed as a sort of mobile wrecking ball. At an average height of 2.5 metres, weighing around 5 tonnes, and trotting up to 16 km/h (10mph), they could be tremendously effective wrecking machines. As the ancient historian Ammianus Marcellinus put it, "the human mind can conceive nothing more terrible than their noise and huge bodies" (Anglim, 132).

从270年代开始，人们用木头和皮革制成轻型塔（howdah或thorakia），将其用链条绑在较大的亚洲象上，并用悬挂在其两侧的盾牌保护。轻型塔通常由多达四个标枪或石弹投掷者据守。然而，大象本身才是主要武器，它被当作一种移动的破坏球。大象的平均高度为2.5米，重量约为5吨，时速可达16公里（10英里），它们可以成为战场上非常有效的破坏机器。正如古代历史学家阿米阿努斯·马尔切利努斯（Ammianus Marcellinus）所说，"人类的大脑无法想象有什么比它们的噪音和巨大的身体更可怕"（Anglim, 132）。

The most important effect of elephants in the field was probably, then, a psychological one. These huge beasts would have terrified men and horses both visually and orally with their trumpeting. Even the smell of elephants could drive unprepared horses into a stampede. Starting the battle in a simple line in front of their own troops they could cause undisciplined and poorly trained cavalry lines to scatter in panic. They were also used to combat any elephants in the opposition's ranks. Tossing, ripping, and crushing the enemy, elephants were used to cause havoc with any defensive fieldworks and fortifications too, where they knocked down walls with their foreheads or pulled them down with their trunks.

那么，大象在战场上最重要的影响可能是心理上的。这些巨大的野兽会用它们的号角声干扰人和马的视觉与听觉。即使是大象的气味也会使毫无准备的马匹陷入混乱。大象在自己的部队前面排成简单的队列开始战斗，它们可以使没有纪律和训练有素的骑兵队伍惊慌失措地散开。他们还被用来打击对手队伍中的大象。大象可以折腾、撕扯和碾压敌人，也被用来对任何防御性的野战工程和防御工事造成破坏，它们用额头撞倒墙壁或用树干拉倒它们。

Elephant corps did not have everything their own way, of course. Firstly, both soldiers and cavalry horses were trained to get used to the sight, smell, and sounds of elephants. Then they obviously provided large targets for artillery fire. Pits and spikes were prepared to entrap them and, if they could get close enough, men were charged with hamstringing the beasts or hacking at their trunks. This latter eventuality was, in part, avoided by the stationing of a small team of infantry to protect the elephant's legs. If the elephant were wounded then all hell might break lose as, unpredictable at the best of times, wounded elephants could literally go mad and cause tremendous damage to both sides. If this happened the rider used a metal spike and hammer to pierce the elephant's brain and kill it immediately.

当然，大象军团并不是事事都按自己的方式进行。首先，士兵和骑兵马匹都要接受训练，以适应大象的视觉、嗅觉和声音。然后，它们显然为敌人炮兵的射击提供了巨大的目标。敌人的坑和钉子都准备好了，以困住大象；如果大象能够足够接近，人们就会负责束缚这些野兽或砍断它们的脚。大象一方在一定程度上会派驻一小队步兵保护大象的腿。如果大象受伤了，那么一切都可能发生，因为在最好的情况下是不可预测的，受伤的大象真的会发疯，会对双方造成巨大的伤害。如果发生这种情况，骑手会用金属钉和锤子刺穿大象的大脑，立即将其杀死。

总结

Once the devastating sight of war elephants became a more common one on the ancient battlefield so their effectiveness diminished as the enemy became more prepared and better equipped to deal with them. In reality, perhaps only a handful of ancient battles had been decided because of the intervention of elephants. This was especially so as Roman warfare developed. Troops became more mobiIe, siege-craft became just as common as open battles, and artillery came to the fore. In later times, the use of elephants was restricted to peace-time activities such as spectacles in the Roman arenas and circuses for public entertainment or as an impressive addition to public processions. Indeed, such was the demand that at Latium and Constantinople permanent herds were kept and the insatiable desire for wild elephants practically wiped out the forest elephant of North Africa. During the late Roman Empire elephants were also given and received as gifts to improve diplomatic relations with neighbouring states.

一旦战象的破坏性在古代战场上变得更加普遍，那么它们的效力就会减弱，因为敌人会提前准备对付它们。在现实中，也许只有少数古代战役是由于大象的介入而决定的。随着罗马战争的发展，情况逐渐改变。部队变得更加机动化，攻城术逐渐普及，大炮也开始崭露头角。在后来，大象的使用仅限于和平时期的活动，如在罗马竞技场和马戏团进行公共娱乐的表演，或作为公共游行的一个令人印象深刻的“装饰品”。事实上，这样的需求使拉蒂姆和君士坦丁堡始终保持着一支象群，人们对野象的贪婪几乎使北非的森林大象绝迹。在罗马帝国后期，大象还被作为互赠的礼物，以改善与邻国的外交关系。