Female Gladiators?

I needed a quick blog this week and Facebook handed me a topic on a silver platter. A lot of false history hits our social media feeds, but women being gladiators - or gladiatrices to be exact - was not false. Let's dive in. 

A statue of a gladiatrice/gladiatrix - courtesy of Reddit

Keep in mind this blog won't go deep diving, thus you should dive deeper yourself if you are interested in the topic. I am introducing you to the topic because I wanted to find out if Facebook was correct. This is a quick history type of blog post. Feel free to research more. I didn't use all the information in my sources. Go ahead and peruse the links below. 

Gladiatrix or gladiatrices are women gladiators. Attempts were made to regulate it through legislation. It was not overly appreciated by Roman writers. It was criticized. Women participating in the games of Rome were not welcomed with open arms. Another name for them is Ludia (Ludi being a name for a female performer) or mulieres (women). Rarely are they named feminae (ladies). The term Gladiatrix was used in the 1800s. Despite all the controversy, there is evidence women were honored as much as the arena men. Their desires were probably for fame, money, independence, and remission of debt. 

Women's roles

Patriarchy is the word of the day. Women didn't write much in Rome and we don't have much about their experiences. Why? Because men wrote most of the history. Women were being restricted and shoved into the domestic box, with less freedoms than men and less choice. I imagine that the more conservative the home the less freedom there was. One source written by Sulpicia in the first century BC actually talks about how she was upset about not being allowed to make her own birthday plans because her uncle interfered. She still had more freedom than most women. Married women who competed were looked down upon. 

Yet, women could be gladiators? Legislation in 11 CE forbids freeborn women from entering the arena under the age of 20. This seems to suggest they could be gladiators and could make that choice for a while. In 200 CE women were outlawed from the arena entirely.  It apparently encouraged a lack of respect for women (crude jokes in the stands - some things never change). Septimus Severus also had a different motive, which was trying to discourage women from wanting to be in the Olympic games. Despite this decree, women still competed later in the third Century CE in Ostia, a port city. 

According to Worldhistory.org there was an interesting legal loophole. "The wording of the inscription specifies that Hostilianus allowed mulieres to fight, not feminae and so it may be that Hostilianus was able to get around Severus' law by some legal loophole whereby free born ladies of the upper class were still prohibited but lower-class women and female slaves could still participate in the games."

Women started in the games as fighting dwarves, sometimes at night by torchlight. Most women later moved on from this to be real gladiators. This was just the start. It was a new novelty. It got attention. Women fighting women was popular, to no one's surprise today. Nero even had women gladiators battle to honor his mother - the mother he murdered (remember, the guy that made human candles out of Christians and had garden parties to watch them suffer?).

Class had something to do with this. Again, most were slaves fighting. It made someone money to make their slaves fight. However, the elite also did the fighting. It was new and exciting. It was an act of defiance and a way to make some parents very upset. Wealthy women could afford all the training and had plenty of time to work out. Women were encouraged to be strong and do sports because they needed to pop out children. 

If you complained about the Zach Snyder Amazons, you are in for a shock. These women fought with nothing on top, helmets, shin protection, and a loin cloth. They fought people with disabilities, each other, and animals. I'm not surprised that someone noticed they got cat-called from the stands. They were an exotic show, something new and rare. The wealthy showed off by having them fight. The crude comments were one reason legislation took steps to limit their arena involvement. These women were marketed as Amazons, which is no shock based on the Roman beliefs. 

The Games Themselves

Would you believe this was a funeral-related activity? It was people re-enacting legends and life events as a tribute. Eventually, the funeral stuff fell off the agenda and people just liked it in general. Aristocrats running for office often sponsored games. This later included the emperor's birthday, coronations, and other large events. 

The first one was held in 264 BCE (funeral-related). Honorius outlawed the practice in 404 CE. Many died (animals and humans) for the sake of mere entertainment. That being said, most did not end in death. Convicted criminals may have been executed there, but most fighting were slaves, slaves trained so well they were valuable. Criminals of serious crimes were executed in the arena. Christians were thrown into the mix, too, but they were not trained and were sent there to die. 

Executions were not the games, though. Not all ended in death. They were evenly matched and fought until one person dropped their shield and weapon to surrender (by holding up one finger). After surrender the sponsor would pause the fight. The up-and-down thumb comes into play here. It may be the sponsor would do the slit-throat gesture to say the loser would die. What the sponsor could do, though, was let the loser live. More were spared than killed. If the loser was declared to die the sponsor had to compensate someone for their slave. 

Evidence points to gladiators living years. It is possible that female gladiators were daughters of retired gladiators in some cases. There were schools for gladiators in Rome. The only catch is that your life is no longer yours. You were alive to fight and train, and only that. It doesn't seem likely they'd let women into the schools, though, so the idea is that maybe the retired gladiator trained the woman or daughter. 

Four types of gladiators were trained. Myrmillo wore a helmet with a fish crest and held an oblong shield and sword. Retiarius (usually fought Myrmillo) was lightly armed with a net and had a trident or dagger. Samnite held a sword, a visored helmet, and an oblong shield. Thracian held a curved blade and a round shield. The reward for making it big in any discipline was fame, fortune, and a lifestyle most women couldn't achieve. 

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Sources:

Did Women Fight as Gladiators in Ancient Rome? | HISTORY

Female Gladiators In Ancient Rome - World History Encyclopedia

Warrior Women: Who Were the Gladiatrices of Ancient Rome? | History Hit