Women Gladiators????

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

After reading the whole topic it just ocorred to me about were would gladiatrix sleep. In the common barracks with the men? Would they have separate places? And what about training? Would it be together?

Considering that there in certain non-roman societies women had perhaps equal status as men, i would think that some times in gladiatorial training there could be some fighting beetween the sexes.

What we know about the barracks is that either one or two people shared one cella, so a female didn't had to share a cella with a male.

About gladiatorial training we don't know much anyhow only that the scholars assume that it must have similar to what Vegetius described in his Epitoma rei militaris for legionary training. I just assume that the training was for all gladiators of the same type the same because they all had to learn the basics, i.e. for provocatores handling the scutum and the gladius.

As you have seen from above we don't have that much evidence about it at all so all is more or less assumption.

[Rex Nemorensis]

Well if I'm correct Emperer Severus banned female gladiators around 200 A.D. but the Larinum decree (under Tiberius) banned senators' daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters, and "any female whose husband or father or grandfather, whether paternal or maternal or brother had ever possessed the right of sitting in the seats reserved for the equites" from being gladiators. Which does seem to imply that there were gladiators before hand but doesn't necessarily mean that there were.

The Satire VI of Juvenal ridicules female gladiators for, as he points out, being upper-class women and seeking thrills.

"Who has not seen the dummies of wood they slash at and batter
Whether with swords or with spears, going through all the manoeuvres?
These are the girls who blast on the trumpets in honour of Flora.
Or, it may be they have deeper designs, and are really preparing
For the arena itself. How can a woman be decent
Sticking her head in a helmet, denying the sex she was born with?
Manly feats they adore, but they wouldn’t want to be men,
Poor weak things (they think), how little they really enjoy it!
What a great honour it is for a husband to see, at an auction
Where his wife’s effects are up for sale, belts, shin-guards,
Arm-protectors and plumes!
Hear her grunt and groan as she works at it, parrying, thrusting;
See her neck bent down under the weight of her helmet.
Look at the rolls of bandage and tape, so her legs look like tree-trunks,
Then have a laugh for yourself, after the practice is over,
Armour and weapons put down, and she squats as she used the vessel.
Ah, degenerate girls from the line of our praetors and consuls,
Tell us, whom have you seen got up in any such fashion,
Panting and sweating like this? No gladiator’s wench,
No tough strip-tease broad would ever so much as attempt it."

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

It is correct that Severus banned female gladiators but the scholars assume that this ban was maybe carried out in Rome itself only but that they still appeared every now and than at provincial shows.

BTW the Satire of Juvenal was already quoted by me if you'd read the thread carefully :wink:

[Rex Nemorensis]

It is correct that Severus banned female gladiators but the scholars assume that this ban was maybe carried out in Rome itself only but that they still appeared every now and than at provincial shows.

BTW the Satire of Juvenal was already quoted by me if you'd read the thread carefully :wink:

Ahh, my apologies...I just skimmed over it during school so I didn't see it.

[richard robinson]

With the opportunity to come out of retirement shortly presenting itself i have been reading this Ancient Combat Sports thread with Enthusiasm.
I am hugely impressed with Medusas scholarship.

I also wish to share with all my interpretation of the famous gladitorix relief.

I have long thought that as a cocession to glamour that that pair are depicted wearing what are normally called/ used as cavalry "sports" helms

and this is perhaps why the the detail of the hairstyle is still extant.

regardz,
Miles Minimus
Richard Robinson

[Gashford]

Hi there

Uwe's questions about the gladiators in the relief being female are well founded.

The figures use common techniques for depicting women in relief work, shoulders more selder than hips, narrow calves and knees drawn together rather than apart (I am told that these are common techniques).

however, among many standing, defeated gladiators we see similar techniques, possibly to 'unman' the defeated gladiators in the sculpture. So it may be that the sculptur was merely showing the 'unmanliness' (if there is such a word) of the defeated gladiator. I guess this will always remain in the 'we'll never know' pile?

Many thanks

[Medusa Gladiatrix]

however, among many standing, defeated gladiators we see similar techniques, possibly to 'unman' the defeated gladiators in the sculpture. So it may be that the sculptur was merely showing the 'unmanliness' (if there is such a word) of the defeated gladiator. I guess this will always remain in the 'we'll never know' pile?

Many thanks

This is what Junkelmann and other scholars think, too, to show the unmanliness of the defeated gladiator. If you have a close look at this picture you will see that there besides this awkward stance of the looser nothing female about the two combatants. Esp. if you have a look at the winner who is shown from the front he definitely has no female breasts.

It would be very much unlikely if a man would be pitched against a woman, so to say in this relief the winner being a man and the looser a woman, because gladiator duels were always equally balanced. Henceforth women fought only women and men only men.