Ancient sources record the use of pigs as weapons against war elephants.
Greek writers such as Polyaenus and Aelianus Tacticus describe how,
during the siege of Megara in 266 BC, defenders drove flaming, squealing
pigs toward the elephants of the Macedonian king Antigonus II Gonatas,
sending them into panic.
The tactic proved effective enough that later commanders trained elephants alongside swine to blunt their fear, a weakness noted by Roman and Byzantine authors from the wars against Pyrrhus to the defense of Edessa centuries later.
