Surus
Surus was believed to be the last war elephant of Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca's army in Italy.
Several Roman writers give accounts of Surus, which was probably a large Syrian elephant with one tusk. Although a Carthaginian coin struck in the time of Hannibal depicts a North African elephant, historians believe Surus was an Western Asiatic or Syrian elephant descended from those seized by the Ptolemies of Egypt in the Syrian Wars. According to some accounts, the animal was the last of the 37 war elephants Hannibal took with him on his 218 B.C. crossing of the Alps, during the Second Punic War.
According to Plautus, Surus wore a red cloth, and may also have carried a red shield and a howdah, which served as a platform for Hannibal, who had difficulties overlooking the battlefield after losing one eye from an infection.
