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Mouseion, Series III, Vol. 4 (2004) 145-170
16>2004 Mouseion
FEMALE AND DWARF GLADIATORS
STEPHEN BRUNET
While female gladiators hold nearly as much fascination for modern
scholars as they did for the Romans, the motivation and rationale for
having women fight in the arena have not been fully appreciated. I
Symptomatic of this lack of understanding is the long-standing and often
repeated idea that female gladiators were matched against dwarf
gladiators as part of the search for unusual spectacles to please Roman
audiences. What this study will first show is that no grounds exist for
believing that women ever fought dwarfs in the arena. In turn, the uncritical
acceptance of this belief by so many scholars indicates the need
for a complete review of the evidence with a view to establishing when
and under what conditions women actually fought in the arena. The
second part of this study provides such a review, showing in particular
that matches between female gladiators or hunts involving women
were fairly rare. As such. the Romans would have found female gladiators
and women venatores to be interesting in and of themselves.
Moreover. spectacles in which women fought each other or wild animals
were attractive to the Romans because they provided an opportunity
to see individuals who would not normally be considered capable
of bravery demonstrate their valor as warriors. Thus, to the Roman
way of thinking, matching female gladiators with dwarfs or having
them participate in other bizarre spectacles was neither necessary nor
desirable.
DID WOMEN FIGHT DWARFS IN THE ARENA?
The belief that Domitian matched female gladiators against dwarf
gladiators at least once. if not more often, during his reign has a long
I I would like to thank my colleagues Richard Clairmont, R. Scott Smith, and
Stephen Trzaskoma for their willingness to comment on multiple drafts of this
article. Alexis Young of Wilfrid Laurier University kindly pointed out the reference
to Kathleen Coleman's article on the female gladiators from Halicarnassus.
The two readers for Mouseion and the editors, James Butrica and Mark
Joyal. also provided many useful observations and corrections that, I hope.
helped to clarify my arguments greatly. Research funding was provided by the
Dean's Office of the College of Liberal Arts and the Center for Humanities at
the University of New Hampshire.
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