The Roman Empire is famous for its arenas such as Coliseum where gladiators fought each other in bloody skirmishes. But were any of these gladiators ever women?
Some evidence, including historical records and artistic depictions, suggests that female gladiators did exist in the Roman Empire, but they were much rarer than their male counterparts.
Who were the female gladiators?
In Rome, women were generally excluded from politics and could not serve in the army. However they had some freedomsand some ran their own businesses or worked as doctors. They could also own property and enter into contracts.
But less is known about female gladiators, so it can be difficult to know who they were and how they competed.
However, the vast majority of male gladiators were enslaved people, and this was likely true for female gladiators as well. There were different ways in which a person could become a slave: they could be enslaved after the war, as punishment for a crime, for unpaid debts or for other reasons.
“I believe that female gladiators were slaves who committed crimes first and foremost.” Anna Minczewskaa professor at Marie Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland who has done extensive research and writing about female gladiators, told Live Science in an email. She noted that another source of female gladiators could be free women with large debts who were forced to sell their freedom to a gladiator school.
However, there were exceptions. Male gladiators included people from the upper classes – perhaps the most famous of them was the Roman Emperor Commodus (reigned 176 to 192 AD), who dressed as the god Mercury and forced the Senate to watch his triumphant battles. I'll probably send a message about his power. Likewise, ancient texts suggest that several women from the upper classes also competed as gladiators.
The ancient Roman writer Tacitus (lived c. 56–120 AD) wrote that in 63 AD, during the reign of NeroThe emperor staged a large gladiatorial show, during which “many noble ladies and senators disgraced themselves in the arena.” (Translation by Mary Lefkowitz and Maureen Fant.)
How did female gladiators compete?
Male gladiators typically wore a helmet and possibly other types of armor. They competed as specialized fighters, such as the retiarii, who fought with a net and a trident. Gladiators did this after a certain level of training, perhaps at a gladiator school. Although some male gladiator fights ended in the death of the loser at the end, not everyone didand the death of gladiators can be costly for those tasked with putting on the show.
There is great uncertainty about how female gladiators competed and how they were selected and trained. A relief from Halicarnassus in what is now Turkey shows two female gladiators with shields and swords with the stage names “Amazon vs. Achilles” (names likely based on mythology).
Stephen BrunetProfessor Emeritus of Classics at the University of New Hampshire, noted in the book chapter: “A Companion to Sports and Spectacle in Greek and Roman Antiquity(Wiley, 2013) that the two women are depicted wearing armor associated with a “provocateur” – a type of gladiator who was supposed to look somewhat similar to a Roman soldier. And like many male gladiators, the women are shown fighting bare-breasted. The women also do not wear helmets, although the artist may have left them out, writes Brunet. The inscription states that the women were “liberated standing” and none of them were killed.
The other is a figurine of a female gladiator. It shows female gladiator holding a short curved dagger called a sica, a type of weapon used by a gladiator called a “traex”. However, as in the relief, the female gladiator does not wear a helmet, but only a loincloth and a bandage on her knees.
How were female gladiators selected?
Alfonso MañasThe UC Berkeley researcher who identified the figurine as a female gladiator in 2011 told Live Science in an email that he suspects appearance played a significant role in the selection of female gladiators. Manyas noted that one of the first sources to mention female gladiators was Nicholas of Damascus (lived from about 64 BC to 4 AD), who wrote that the women chosen for combat were not the strongest or most experienced, but rather “the most beautiful.” This text indicates that the person sponsoring the gladiator contests had significant influence over which women fought.
Manyas said textual references often refer to female gladiators who performed at shows put on by Roman emperors. The use of female gladiators was likely “a very expensive and exclusive show, closely associated with the emperor, so it was performed on very rare occasions,” he said.
According to Manyas, female gladiators were probably ordered not to wear helmets so that spectators could see their faces. He also suspects that they would have been prohibited from fighting to the death, noting that none of the written sources mention the death of a female gladiator. Moreover, not a single tombstone of a female gladiator has ever been found, despite the fact that over 1,000 tombstones of male gladiators have been documented.
“In Rome, no one expected a woman to be skilled with weapons, brave in battle, or to face death in battle,” Magnas said. The rules, and perhaps the weapons, would likely be changed somewhat to reduce the risk of death, Manyas noted.
Virginia Campbell A lecturer at the Open University in the UK who has studied gladiators in detail believes that physical fitness likely played a role in the selection of female gladiators. Because “there are costs associated with training and maintaining gladiators, the choice of women and men will depend, at least in part, on their fitness and ability to fight,” Campbell told Live Science in an email. “After all, gladiators were meant to entertain, not die, so it would be in the best interests [owner] make smart choices when choosing your [fighters]”
Even if beauty was emphasized, some spectators were impressed by the way they fought. The poet Statius (lived from 45 to 96 AD) wrote about female gladiators fighting in one performance that “one would think Amazon gang fought at the Tanais River…” (translated by Mary Lefkowitz and Maureen Fant).
