When you think of Roman gladiators, everyone will think of strong men competing against each other in the arena in a fight to the death. Careful study of the sources has convinced historians that women also fought as gladiators. This gives cause to reconsider material sources:isn't the tough gladiator on a relief actually a woman?
Sounding swords, roars, rousing music, cheers from the crowd. A dull fall, more cheering, the music swells, one more whistling of the sword and then it's over. Two gladiators stand in the middle of the arena, panting but proud. Both struggled to the death until the public decided enough masculinity had been shown and both were allowed to live. Then the helmets come off and the long hair falls down in curls on one, while the other is neatly pinned up. In the midst of all the violence, two women, dressed in gladiator costumes, receive their well-deserved applause.
Until ten years ago it was always thought that the gladiatorial world was a man's world, because the fights were connected with virtus (masculinity), a virtue that every "true" Roman man should possess. At the same time gladiators were also infames (dishonored) because they used their bodies for the pleasure of others. The male gladiator as a person was the lowest of the lowest, while his fight could be a display of virtus. The display of virtus could therefore be independent of the person portraying it. This was probably one of the reasons that from the end of the 1st century BC it was also possible for women to fight as gladiators in the arena. Like men, they could be a model of Roman masculinity. Being a woman was completely separate from the virtus they showed. In addition, the spectacle and popularity of those in power in Roman society became increasingly important and it was a challenge to look for 'other' fighters than men.
Achilla and Amazon
In recent decades, historians have therefore paid increasing attention to the existence of the female gladiator. Evidence for this can be found in literary, epigraphic, iconographic and legal sources from the Roman period. In many cases the sources about women have been reviewed and described and this time not, as before, dismissed as a farce of gladiatorial games. Historians such as Stephen Brunet, Anna McCullough, Thomas Wiedemann and Magnus Wistrand see the women as 'real' gladiators who could show a good fight. Yet there is still a lot of unexplored territory. So far, apart from written sources, only one image of female gladiators is known:the relief of Hallicarnassus described by Kathleen Coleman.
On it we see two women named Achilla and Amazon. It seems like little, one relief, but this is largely due to the fact that until now the gladiators depicted have always been interpreted as men. This is partly because scientists for a long time were not aware of the existence or the virtue of the female gladiator. If you look closely at the depicted figures, some people appear to have very feminine features. Don't the curves at the breast indicate a woman's breasts and isn't the graceful posture that of a woman?
Ghiaramonti relief
In the Galleria Ghiaramonti, one of the museums in the Vatican City, hangs a relief fragment depicting three gladiators wholly and one half.
Until now, historians such as the German historian Marcus Junkelmann and the Italian historian Massimiliano Papini these gladiators as men. The relief can be dated to the second century AD and was found in the Colosseum in Rome. The gladiators are probably depicted in a victory pose, given their bare heads and relaxed posture. But if you look closely, you can see that two of them, the fully visible left and the right of the three, have rather feminine features. This starts with attitude. The two gladiators have a more feminine stance than the male gladiator in the middle. This is due to their closed pose where they shield part of the body and keep the legs close together. Art historians call this a modesty pose (modest pose) often used when portraying Roman women.
A good example of this is the Greek statue of Venus from the Capitoline Museums in Rome. In this feminine posture it is also common to bend one leg slightly in front of the other so that the gender is shielded. This is also reflected in the Ghiaramonti relief fragment with the two 'female' gladiators. The middle gladiator, on the other hand, has an open dominant pose and shows his torso clearly. In this way, men were more often depicted in the Roman Empire.
Furthermore, the breasts of the two 'female' gladiators appear much rounder and more visible than the figure in the middle. If you compare these round breasts with other busts on gladiator reliefs, such as the tomb relief of C. Lusius Storax, the difference is clear.
The men whose torsos are clearly visible, unmistakably have the squarer lines of a muscular male body.
Looking at the faces and hair of the people in the Ghiaramonti relief, features can also be discovered that are more reminiscent of women than men. On the rightmost person, the hair hangs long and completely loose. This is reminiscent of the 'barbarian' women on the column of Marcus Aurelius from the end of the second century AD. The hairdress of the left gladiator is different, she seems to have her hair pushed back, as was common with Roman women. The shapes of the faces of the two gladiators are also finer than their male colleague in the middle.
Barbaric and civilized
The bare torso of the figure on the right of the Ghiaramonti relief reinforces the idea of the 'barbarian' woman. Amazons, mythological female warriors, were also often depicted with bare upper bodies and seen as full-blown barbarians. They formed a society in which there was no place for men and therefore, according to the Greeks and Romans, adhered to the wrong gender division. The myth, which was accepted as true in ancient times, was a representation of the struggle between civilization and barbarism. If the person on the right reminds you of an Amazon type, it is not surprising that the figure on the left has more external characteristics of a Roman woman. The battle between the barbarians and the civilized was possibly shown here in miniature. The comparison with Amazons could already be seen in the relief from Hallicarnasus. The Roman poet Statius also made a connection between female gladiators and Amazons in his Silvae (1.6.51-56). Until recently, little has been done with this type of text because, as mentioned before, the female gladiator was not taken seriously for a long time.
Missio
Like the relief of Hallicarnassus, the gladiators depicted on the relief from the Galleria Ghiaramonti can be dated to the 2nd century AD. The portrayal of female gladiators was therefore not uncommon at that time, as was the phenomenon of female gladiators in general. In addition, this image fits in well with the idea that people had about male and female gladiators, namely that they never fought against each other but always against an equal opponent, because that is how they could best show their virtus. In this case, the two men and the two women would have fought each other. If both fighters showed enough virtus in a fight, it could mean that they both survived. It would be far too costly to have a trained gladiator die in every battle and so gladiators could missio (dismissed from a fight) if they had shown a good fight. Could this also be the story behind this relief fragment? After a valiant battle, had the two women shown enough masculinity to survive both, and then get ready for the next fight?
In conclusion:the relief fragment from the Galleria Ghiaramonti probably shows female gladiators. The appearance and attitude of the two gladiators are strongly reminiscent of women, and not of men as Junkelmann and Papini claim. Also the fact that another relief existed at that time depicting female gladiators and that the female gladiator already appeared in more sources supports this claim. But the Ghiaramonti relief is not the only gladiator relief, and looking at existing material with this new look makes us wonder what surprises other gladiator reliefs have in store for us. The more evidence that is found for the female gladiator, the better this 'strange' group can be understood and placed in male-dominated Roman society.