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Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest military leaders in history, the Carthaginian general Hannibal famously invaded Italy from the north in 218 B.C., crossing the Alps from Gaul with an army of foot-soldiers, cavalry and a handful of north African forest elephants, smaller than the Asian and African elephants familiar to today’s zoo-goers. Of the six elephants that survived the arduous mountain trek, five died the following winter. The sixth, a one-tusked elephant named Surus, became Hannibal’s mount and mobile viewing platform in the marshes of the Arno. Over the next 15 years, Hannibal won significant battles and occupied much of Italy, sometimes with reinforcement elephants shipped directly from Africa. In a 209 B.C. battle with the Roman consul Marcellus, Hannibal’s war elephants created havoc until the Romans managed to wound one, touching off a cascade of panic among the pachyderms.

Several Roman writers give accounts of Surus, a large elephant with a tusk broken. According to Plautus, Surus wore a red cloth, and may also have carried a red shield and a howdah (a construction on the animal's back), which served as a platform for Hannibal, who had difficulties overlooking the battlefield after losing one eye from an infection. According to some accounts, the animal was the last of the 37 war elephants Hannibal took with him on his 218 BC crossing of the Alps, during the Second Punic War.[2]

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, as its name, "Surus", would translate as "The Syrian".[3] However, others have proposed it was a North African elephant like the rest of animals used by Carthage, interpreting the name as a nickname Romans would have given it for its broken tusk (surus or sudus being the name for a stake used in fortifications).[4]