Elephants at Gaugamela

[Loxodontus Epirotus]

I'm looking at the army rosters of several Gaugamela lists and I see elephants for the Persians. However apart from documented - they are there in various books but none that I have actually say what part they played in the battle. They were definately in front of Darius with the a few squadrons of scythe chariots in front of them. However there is no mention of their use. Can anybody please point me to where their use in the battle is documented?

[stuartmcc]

It may be assumed that they weren't fit for the battle, as Darius had his army stand to for a day as soon as he was aware of Alexander's approach. Arrian, whose numbers can be quite fantastic by the way, says, "In front of Darius's royal squadron of cavalry stood the elephants and fifty chariots." Another bit of evidence to suggest they did not take any part in the battle is, again from Arrian, when he details the flight of the Persian army and describes how the Macedonians "seized the Persian camp with their baggage, elephants, and camels."

Curtius Rufus, Diodorus and Plutarch don't mention elephants at all in their commentary on Guagamela.

So, I wouldn't allow any elephants in a Guagamela rematch.

[Loxodontus Epirotus]

Interesting I have had a look at some of the sources mentioned and its implied that the elephants needed a large daily intake of water. So it seems that they were made to stand for a very long period (in the baking sun) and were not cooperative and therefore not in a fighting mood at all because they were so thirsty.
Thanks for that - I'll take them out of the list!