War pigs arepigs reported to have been used inancient warfare asmilitary animals. In combat, they were mostly employed as a countermeasure againstwar elephants.

Historical accounts ofincendiary pigs orflaming pigs were recorded by the Greek military writerPolyaenus^[1] and byAelianus Tacticus.^[2] Both writers reported thatMacedonian kingAntigonus II Gonatas' siege ofMegara in 266 BC was broken when the Megarians doused some pigs with combustiblepitch, crude oil orresin, set them alight, and drove them towards the massed Macedonian war elephants. The elephantsbolted in terror from the flaming, squealing pigs, often killing great numbers of Macedonian soldiers by trampling them to death.^[3][4] According to an account, Gonatas later made hismahouts keep a swine among elephants to accustom the animals to pigs and this practice was immortalized by a Roman bronze coin dating back to his time, which showed an elephant on one side and a pig on the other.^[5]

In the 1st century BC, the Roman authorLucretius^[7] noted that humans may have attempted to launch wild beasts, such as lions or "savage boars", against the enemy, but with catastrophic results. In 272 BC, it was recorded that the Romans used wild boars in their fight against the war elephants of theTarantines.^[8] According to a legend recounted in the "Alexander Romance" byPseudo-Callisthenes,^[9] the Macedonian EmperorAlexander the Great learned about this "secret weapon" against war elephants fromKing Porus in India.^[10]

Roman author and military officerPliny the Elder reported that "elephants are scared by the smallest squeal of the hog".^[11] Roman author and teacherClaudius Aelianus^[12] confirmed that elephants were frightened by squealing pigs andrams with horns, and reported that the Romans exploited both squealing pigs and horned rams to repel the war elephants ofPyrrhus in 275 BC. Byzantine Greek scholarProcopius, inHistory of the Wars,^[13] recorded that the defenders ofEdessa suspended a squealing pig from the walls to frighten awayKhosrau's single siege elephant in the 6th century AD.^[14]

As late as the 16th century, the supposed terror of the elephant for the squealing pig was reported by the English politicianReginald Scot.^[15]

• Michael Crawford,Roman Republican Coinage, Cambridge University Press, 1974.
• Kistler, J. (2005, 2007).War Elephants. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
• Mayor, A. (2005, 2009).Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World. NY: Overlook/Duckworth.

This article about aneven-toed ungulate is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Ancient warfare
• Incendiary weapons
• Military animals
• Pigs
• Working animals
• Artiodactyla stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All stub articles