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STEPHEN BRUNET
dwarfs fight separately in the arena. Neither his statement nor the evidence
of the other authors can be taken to support the idea that women
fought dwarfs in the arena.
The willingness of so many scholars to accept that matches between
women and dwarfs took place. even though the evidence does not bear
this belief out. can be traced in part to the unargued assumption that
female gladiators were simply novelties and had no serious role in the
Roman games. On this view. the Romans enjoyed female gladiators because
they. like dwarfs. were not real gladiators. and so whenever
women fought each other or. even more. when they fought dwarfs.
their parodies of regular gladiatorial contests were highly amusing to
the Romans. So. to quote Gunderson. "on the principle that pairings
match opponents of equivalent worth. women are best matched against
men who are mockeries of real men. "25 A related view connects the
supposed novelty of female gladiators with the continual search by emperors
for bizarre spectacles to please the Roman people. It would thus
only have been a matter of time before some emperor thought of
matching women and dwarfs to produce an even more novel and curious
show than the instances when they had performed separately.
Schafer clearly comes out in favor of this view in her discussion of female
and dwarf gladiators: "Das ist in enge Zusammenhang mit del'
kaiserzeitlichen Entwicklung zu immer raffinierteren und moglichst
auBergewohnlichen Darbietungen zu verstehen. die im Rahmen kaiserlicher
liberalitas gezielt zur Befriedigung des Volkes eingesetzt wurden."26
The fact. however. that women were never paired against
dwarfs suggests that we should reevaluate the assumption that the female
gladiators were valued simply because they were curiosities and
oddities. In particular. the evidence for female gladiators should be examined
carefully to see if some significant principle underlay the use of
women in the arena and limited their appearances to certain conditions
or venues.
THE EVIDENCE FOR FEMALE GLADIATORS AND VENA TORES
The list below includes all known evidence. both literary and artistic.
for women appearing in the arena as gladiators or venatores. The list
has been divided into I. Historical references to women in the arena. II.
Fictional accounts of women who appeared in the arena or played at
being gladiators. III. Legal measures involving women and the arena.
and IV. Representations in art of female gladiat rs. Particular attention
25 Gunderson (above. n. 6) 143.
26 Schafer (above. n. 6) 246.