If there’s one bit of Ancient Roman history most people know, it’s that the rich and powerful loved watching slaves and prisoners fight each other – and sometimes animals – to the death in an arena.
These “gladiators” were entertainment to their captors but for many, they were nothing more than prisoners just waiting for their brutal deaths.
Were there women in that arena, though? And did they choose the life and “honorable death” they would find there?
There’s some evidence to suggest the answer to both of those questions might be yes.
There is an ancient marble relief hanging in the British Museum that depicts two gladiators – one male and one female – in a battle that ultimately ended in a draw.
We have also uncovered a 2,000-year-old bronze statue that appears to depict a female gladiator, though there have been some who argue the “weapon” in her hand is actually an instrument used to clean the skin.
In addition, we have 10 literary fragment and one epigraphic inscription that seem to point to the existence of female gladiators, so while they likely existed, it seems they were not the norm.
Becoming a gladiator was a lowly position, no matter how you came into it, so any woman who found herself there likely felt extreme shame.
Roman satirist Juvenal describes the arena through contemporary eyes.
“What sense of shame can be found in a woman wearing a helmet, who shuns femininity and loves brute force…If an auction is held of your wife’s effects, how proud you will be of her belt and arm-pads and plumes, and her half-length left-leg shin-guard! Or, if instead, she prefers a different form of combat [as a Thraex, both of whose legs were protected], how pleased you’ll be when the girl of your heart sells off her greaves! …Hear her grunt while she practises thrusts as shown by the trainer, wilting under the weight of the helmet.”
Like any person, male or female, who lives for the adrenaline rush, World History Encyclopedia content director Joshua Mark says some of these women gladiators likely craved applause and recognition.
“Women who chose a life in the arena – and it does seem this was a choice – may have been motivated by a desire for independence, a chance at fame, and financial rewards included remission of debt. Although it seems a woman gave up any claim to respectability as soon as she entered the arena, there is some evidence to suggest that female gladiators were honored as highly as their male counterparts.”
It seems obvious now that women in the ancient world probably did everything men did, even if in smaller numbers.
I bet some of them totally amazing, too!
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?