Nicanor the Elephant

Nicanor or Nicanor (Greek: Νικάνωρ, Nikanōr), nicknamed the Elephant, was a general under King Philip V of Macedonia in the 3rd century BCE.

He invaded Attica with an army shortly before the breaking out of the Second Macedonian War between Philip and the Romans in 200 BCE. But after laying waste to part of the open country, he was induced to withdraw by the remonstrances of the Roman ambassadors then at Athens.^[1]

He is again mentioned as commanding the rearguard of Philip's army at the battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BCE, which the Romans won.^[2]

References

1. ^ Polybius 16.27.
2. ^ Polybius 18.7; Livy 33.8.

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).