The pink elephant: mere decoration or legend?

During the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), Hannibal Barca, a Carthaginian general and politician considered one of the greatest military tacticians in history, set out from Spain to Italy to attack Rome. As the southern route through Gaul was the only way to lead tens of thousands of men along this route, he took his troops across the Alps to reach Italy… and among them were elephants.

After crossing Languedoc and passing the Rhône, Hannibal avoided confronting Scipio’s army, which had landed at the eastern mouth of the Rhône, and led his troops across the Alps in ten days of approach, nine days of climbing through hostile tribes, two days of regrouping at the pass and four days of descent, cutting a path through the mountainside to finally reach the Po Valley. Legend has it that these men and elephants crossed the Little Saint Bernard Pass to reach Italy.