The Carthaginian general Hannibal took some elephants across the Alps when he fought the Romans . He probably used the North African elephant , a kind of elephant that does not live today . The Carthaginian general Hannibal took elephants across the Alps when he was fighting the Romans , but brought too few elephants to be of much military use , although his horse cavalry was quite successful ; he probably used a now-extinct third African subspecies , the North African forest elephant , smaller than its two southern cousins , and presumably easier to domesticate .