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Can anyone help, please?
#31
Hi Brien Gilroy,

I didn't lknow about Russell Whitfield's Gladiatrix when I wrote my book of the same name, nor have I read it, though I recently had a "Look inside" on Amazon. I only read a few words, enough to realise that our novels are very different.

In answer to your question, I looked up Achillia and Amazon on the internet and find that Wikipedia now have a page which is a good summary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiatrix

In my novel my gladiatrix is a retiaria, so she has just the subligaculum, wide leather belt, strophium to cover her breasts, initially of linen, later of leather, sleeve, manica and galerus. I believe the male retiarii sometimes wore leather bonnets, and sometimes were made to fight with less armour... no manica, for example.

I have seen the relief of Achillia and Amazon at the British Museum and very moving it was too. I confess I thought they were Murmillones, but it seems they were Provocatrices. So that's another correction to my notes.

I think the important thing when you are kitting out your gladiator or gladiatrix is to look at the pictoral evidence, though this can be confusing because of right or left handedness. Achillia and Amazon are both wearing the loincloth, are well armed, but it's hard to see if their breasts are covered. I will have a look and see if my own photos are any better.

Domitian, according to Suetonius, liked to stage fights between gladiatrices and dwarfs, by torchlihght, naked (I think... I have not read this at source). I don't know what sort of fighters they were.

My feelings are that there isn't enough evidence to rule anything out, so go with what drives your story. Perhaps others, in particularr Medusa, who has studied the topic more closely than I, disagree.

I imagine it would have been deemed incredibly shocking to Romans that a woman should fight in the arena, doubly so if she were naked. But titillating. And there we have this bizarre contradiction of gladiators being the lowest of the low, and yet idolised.

I'm a little wary of taking written evidence as fact because we have to bear in mind that the author might have some political point to make. I'm a little wary of taking artifact evidence as face value because of artistic licence. That said, Achillia and Amazon have their loins decently clad.

Personally I wasn't writing erotica, so I clothed my gladiatrix in male attire apart from the strophium (except on one occasion). Others may choose to have naked gladiatrices. My thoughts are that it depemds on what your gladiatrice fights as, when and where your novel is based, and what you want to do in your story.

Good luck with your writing.
Linda Priestley AKA Linda Gruchy
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Messages In This Thread
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 09-27-2012, 10:23 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 09-29-2012, 11:39 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by jkaler48 - 09-30-2012, 02:22 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-18-2012, 09:41 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Graham Sumner - 10-18-2012, 10:05 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-18-2012, 10:43 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Graham Sumner - 10-19-2012, 02:55 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-19-2012, 04:03 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Agrimensor - 10-20-2012, 12:10 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Medusa Gladiatrix - 10-20-2012, 12:14 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-20-2012, 01:31 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-20-2012, 01:42 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Medusa Gladiatrix - 10-21-2012, 03:01 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-21-2012, 03:39 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Brien Gilroy - 10-22-2012, 03:33 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-22-2012, 03:39 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-22-2012, 06:45 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by john m roberts - 10-22-2012, 10:00 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-22-2012, 10:19 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by M. Demetrius - 10-23-2012, 09:21 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-23-2012, 11:22 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by M. Demetrius - 10-23-2012, 05:52 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-24-2012, 02:25 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Agrimensor - 10-24-2012, 12:11 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-24-2012, 12:47 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 12-29-2012, 02:26 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Medusa Gladiatrix - 01-21-2013, 01:23 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 08-16-2015, 04:52 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Medusa Gladiatrix - 10-24-2012, 11:18 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-25-2012, 02:55 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Medusa Gladiatrix - 10-26-2012, 12:13 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-30-2012, 02:43 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Brien Gilroy - 10-31-2012, 02:39 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-31-2012, 04:07 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 10-31-2012, 04:12 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Brien Gilroy - 10-31-2012, 04:35 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 11-07-2012, 02:30 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 11-09-2012, 11:25 PM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 11-10-2012, 03:34 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Medusa Gladiatrix - 11-13-2012, 01:15 AM
Can anyone help, please? - by Linda Priestley - 11-13-2012, 01:47 AM

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