Were there female gladiators in ancient Rome? While sparse, evidence exists in art, laws and written accounts that women did participate in the brutal sport during the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire, fighting each other fiercely with weapons for entertainment.
Written history has numerous accounts of female gladiators. Historians at the time described women sparring with each other as after-dinner acts in the first century B. Female gladiators fought in the thriving city of Pompeii. And an inscription found in the port city of Ostia shows a local magistrate boasting of being the first to "provide women for the sword" since the city's founding.
Women of all classes participated. Enslaved women generally worked for wealthy families, and an entrepreneurial owner might sense an opportunity, says David S. Potter, a professor of classics at the University of Michigan who has written extensively about ancient sports. Let's get you trained as a gladiator.
You'll make a lot of money from your fights. Middle and upper-class women also foughtβfor the same reasons that young men of privilege did, says Potter: "It's exciting.
It's different. It pisses off their parents. At the time, women engaged in a variety of sports and prized staying in shape, Potter says. Roman officials encouraged them, to build strength for childbirth. Affluent women could afford training and had the leisure time to work out. Professional gladiator troupe managers encouraged those who excelled at wrestling to try gladiatorial combat, which offered money and glamour. The Roman Senate passed laws in 11 and 19 A. Only one surviving work of art, housed in the British Museum, clearly depicts female gladiators: An ancient marble relief found in Halicarnassus, in what is now Turkey, shows two women battling with shields, swords and leg protectors.
