Not All Ancient Gladiators Were Men It Seems

When we think of those fierce gladiators fighting to the death in the ancient days of Rome and the Coliseum it is usually brawny men duking it out with swords and spears. It turns out that we may be wrong on that count.

According to experts studying a recently found bronze statue that dates back almost 2,000 years some gladiators fighting in the ring may have actually been women, and that they won those fights to the death.

If this statue is confirmed as a that of a female gladiator it will be the second time that any depiction of a female gladiator has been found.

The gladiator statue shows a topless woman, wearing only a loincloth and a bandage around her left knee. Her hair is long, although neat, and in the air she raises what the researcher, Alfonso Manas of the University of Granada, believes is a sica, a short curved sword used by gladiators. The gesture she gives is a “salute to the people, to the crowd,” Manas said, an action done by victorious gladiatorsat the end of a fight.

The female fighter is looking down at the ground, presumably at her fallen opponent.

via Live Science.

Here is the statue that has raised an interesting question of women and their role as a gladiator.

via Geekologie

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Tags: gladiators, Romans, Women

About the Author

Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).