From Terror to Tactical Usage: Elephants in the Partho-Sasanian Period
by Touraj Daryaee
Abstract: Daryaee shows that despite elephants’ status as demonic creatures in Zoroastrianism and the Sasanian dynasty’s formalisation of this faith as the official religion in Persia, there was broad continuity between Parthian and Sasanian attitudes towards these animals. They continued to be used as weapons of war in conflicts with the Romans whilst white elephants were symbols of royal authority.
Book chapter in: The Parthian and Early Sasanian Empires: Adaption and Expansion, eds. V. Sarkhosh Curtis et.al., Oxford, 2016, pp. 36-41.