(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

You gotta love a class where the professor ends his e-mails with, "I need to price the requirements and costs of elephants."

(Rather expensive, I'm guessing.)

Comments

[azurelunatic]

Ooo, bribery?

Why yes, I've just come from reading some new Vorkosigan stuff, don't mind me...

[bedlamsbard]

*arches eyebrow* Carthage's costs for the first Punic War?

Have never read Vorkosigan, won't get the reference...

[azurelunatic]

There's a very cute segment in one of the books where two characters are taking some downtime and fishing. They're both military intelligence: one, the retired head of security, one, his young apprentice. The retired guy talks about the various forms people's weaknesses (as exploitable by bribes, either by the enemy or by their side) take. Money, sex, power ... those are the usual ones. But once when sweetening a deal for someone, it turned out that what he'd always wanted was an elephant. So Imperial Security obtained an elephant. Much to the surprise of everyone involved, the ImpSec minion tasked to do it included.

[bedlamsbard]

AWWW.

[dogstar]

you know, I've actually got a friend who might be able to help with that. :P She works at a zoo and probably knows the guy who does the food ordering for them, for example. :P

[bedlamsbard]

Apparently, it was A LOT. The Carthiginians used a now-extinct breed of elephant, which was still, you know, an elephant, so campaigning with a hundred elephants was a daily requirement of 4050 gallons of water and 13.7 tons of vegetation. Really, alongside the initial investment and having to pay for elephant groomers, trainers, and the people who go to war on elephants, it seems like rather more trouble than it's worth.

[whatistigerbalm]

What are the requirements of elephants, then?

man, I clearly should have uploaded my elephant icons

[bedlamsbard]

WELL. The Carthaginian armies during the Punic Wars (3rd century BC) apparently used a now extinct subspecies of today's North African forest elephant, so we (or, well, my professor) can make estimates based off of what today's species requires, which is to say, 150 litres (40.5 gallons) of water and 125 kilograms (275 pounds) of vegetation PER DAY. The actual value of an elephant was probably around 1.5 to 2 talents -- basically what you'd pay for a large warship. (A Roman talent is roughly, going off Wikipedia, 32.3 kg/71 lb of silver. An Attic talent is 26 kg.) (My professor estimated this out based on the cost of cavalry horses, as well as the time a Seleucid traded several satrapies (provinces) in exchange for 500 elephants, estimating the annual income of the satrapies.) So a huge initial investment.

Now, consider the fact that you have decided to invade Sicily and must bring along 100 elephants. For 100 elephants, you have to supply them daily with 4,050 gallons of water and 13.75 tons of vegetation. Each elephant has a four man crew and work in pairs, with a supporting unit of 50 men, all of whom need to be paid a drachma a day. Plus you have servants and grooms and so on, who also need to be paid (though probably less than the fighters). So not only do you have the 200 talent initial investment, you have to continually feed the elephants and the men (plus the rest of the army!), and pay the men, and hope that when you go into battle your elephants will actually head towards your enemy and not towards your own troops.

Personally, I'm not convinced the elephants were worth it, but the Carthaginians definitely did! And I guess the scare factor played a major part in it, too, because the gods know I'd turn tail and run if an elephant came charging towards me.