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FEMALE AND DWARFGLADIATORS [65
darius. one of the more unusual types of gladiators. How much before
the reign of Nero women first fought in the arena cannot be determined
with complete certainty. The Senatus Consultum of A.D. 19 contemplates
that women might become gladiators but does not prove that any
had actually done so. The need for regulations could easily have been
triggered by young men who had joined gladiatorial schools. while
women were included simply for the sake of comprehensiveness. Because
of the lack of details in Athenaeus' report. it is hard to trust the
evidence of Nicolaus of Damascus that female slaves could be forced to
fight as gladiators in the late Republic or early Empire. The two sources
strongly hint but do not prove that by the time of Augustus a Roman
audience had already witnessed fights involving female gladiators or
venatores.
The rarity of female gladiators is testified by the fact that. out of the
massive number of vases. reliefs. lamps and other artworks that draw
their subject matter from the world of gladiatorial combat. we possess
only one artistic representation clearly depicting female gladiators. 60
Moreover. the inscription from Ostia mentioned above indicates that as
late as the second century A.D. female gladiators had never appeared
before in a city that was moderately large and relatively close to Rome.
Finally. we should not be deceived by the large number of authors who
refer to female gladiators. The number of occasions when we can be
certain that women actually appeared in the games at Rome is quite
small: once during the reign of Nero (assuming that Dio and Tacitus
refer to the same event), once under Titus (granted that Mart. Sp. 6 and
68 concern the same event). and once under Domitian (Stat. Silv. 1.6). It
should also be noted that on only two of these occasions. under Nero
and under Domitian. did women fight as actual gladiators. Titus seems
to have employed women exclusively as venatores. Likewise. we know
of only two sites other than Rome at which we can be certain female
gladiators appeared: Ostia (the inscription discussed above) and Hali-
60 The rarity of female gladiators in Roman society undercuts M. Vesley's
argument ("Gladiatorial training for girls in the Collegia Iuvenum of the Roman
Empire." EMC 42 [1998] 85-93) that some girls of elite families received gladiatorial
training in the collegia iuvenum and then decided to become actual gladiators.
His evidence that girls became full members of the collegia iuvenum is
open to debate. but this is not the place to dispute that issue. More problematic
are his assertions that (I) the collegia iuvenum "were the training grounds for
male nobles who wished to appear in the arena" (a claim that needs but receives
no justification) and (2) that since female gladiators were a common feature of
Roman life (a view that does not stand up to close examination. as demonstrated
here). they must have received their training somewhere. e.g. in the collegia
iuvenum.