He had with him, however, Theodotas of Rhodes, a fine soldier and skilful tactician, and this man’s presence restored his confidence. Now Antiochus had sixteen elephants, and Theodotas told him to keep them hidden as much as possible so they should not be seen towering above the troops; on the signal for battle just when the fighting was to start and the troops to come to grips and the enemy’s cavalry charged, the Galatians would open their phalanx and stand aside to let the chariots through; at that moment a group of four elephants should be sent against the cavalry on either flank, the remaining eight attacking the scythed and two-horse chariots. Such a movement, said Theodotas, would frighten their horses and turn them back in flight against the Galatian ranks. So it turned out. Neither the Galatians themselves nor their horses had previously seen an elephant and they were so confused by the unexpected sight that, while the beasts were still a long way off and they could only hear the trumpet, ing and see their tusks gleaming all the more brightly against their bodies dark all over and their trunks

 

raised like hooks, they turned and fled in a disorderly rout before they were within bowshot. Their infantry were impaled on each other’s spears and trampled underfoot as they were, by the cavalry, which came riding into them. The chariots too turned back against their own men and broke their ranks, not without bloodshed—in the words of Homer “the chariots clattered as they overturned.”
 Homer, Il . xvi, 379. 
 Once the horses had veered from their straight course in their fear of the elephants, they threw off their drivers and the “empty chariots rattled on,”
 Homer, Il . xi, 160. 
 actually tearing and cutting with their scythes any of their own men in their path. Many men were caught since there was utter confusion. The elephants followed, trampling on them, tossing them aloft in their trunks, snatching and piercing them with their tusks, and in the end these animals had presented Antiochus with an overwhelming victory.