Persian war elephants

Some[citation needed] claim that they had been used previously in the Greek campaign of King Xerxes I of Persia, and even further back at the time of Darius the Great at the Indus, the Danube and against the Scythians in 512 BC.

[3] Emperor Julian mentions their use in the wars of 337–361, carrying "iron towers full of archers"[4] (possibly hyperbole; he was not an eye-witness to the particular battle he described).

[3] The elephants were later used by the Sasanians against Julian during his campaign in 363, including at Ctesiphon, Samarra, and later in a surprise attack on Jovian's forces.

[3] The eye-witness Ammianus Marcellinus describes the beasts as "gleaming elephants with ... cruel gaping jaws, pungent smell, and strange appearance";[5] at Ctesiphon, they were placed behind the Sasanian ranks, looking like "walking hills" that "by the movements of their enormous bodies, ... threatened destruction to all who came near them, dreaded as they were from past experience".

[3] The Sasanian elephants were most effective in siege warfare against fortified cities, where they probably carried turrets or howdahs[3] and were used as shooting platforms.

According to Procopius, emperor Justinian I had raised Dara's city walls by 30 feet (9.1 m) to hinder attacks by the Sasanian elephants.

[6] Procopius has mentioned wooden turrets that allowed the Sasanians to tower over the walls of a besieged city and shoot arrows.