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168 STEPHEN BRUNET
pIe. did not decide to break with tradition and arrange for female
gladiators to fight dwarfs. Yet there were two reasons why such
matches would not have made sense to the Romans. First, female gladiators
continued to be sufficiently unusual and interesting in themselves
that there was no need for them to be matched against dwarfs or,
equally well, to participate in a specially arranged show like a naumachia.
Because of their rarity, they would have been a "hit" in themselves
without the addition of any unusual staging. Second, it was standard
practice in staging gladiatorial contests to match gladiators of
equal abilities. and by violating this practice any attempt to make
women fight dwarfs would have also undercut the principle that female
gladiators should function as exemplars of virtue. 65 Not only would
these two opponents have appeared ridiculous standing next to each
other, most female gladiators would have had a distinct advantage over
their dwarf opponents in weight. in reach, and often even in mobility. A
fight between two such unevenly matched contestants would have
ended quickly, with the result that the female gladiators would have lost
the opportunity to show if they could really fight bravely. In a similar
fashion, if we take our lead from Juvenal, the animal a woman would
normally fight was likewise chosen with an eye to ensuring that the
contest would not be too easy or too hard. In 1.22-23 Juvenal takes it as
typical that a female venator would be matched against a boar. Unlike a
lion or another equally large animal. a woman might be expected to kill
a boar by herself. but doing so represented a fairly dangerous enterprise
and one that would have revealed her skill and courage.
If nothing worthwhile could have been learned from matching
women and dwarfs, the same was true for contests between female and
male gladiators except that in this case the women would have been the
ones at a consistent disadvantage. The result still would have been unacceptable
in that neither opponent would normally have been able to
demonstrate any real skill with weapons or any spirit and fortitude.
This partially explains why, to judge from the list of evidence for female
gladiators. no Roman ever seems to have arranged for women to fight
men. In addition. by not giving female gladiators any opportunity to
prove that they could beat men at their own game, the Romans avoided
a potential source of social turmoil. If instances in which women simply
trained as gladiators could raise issues about gender roles, as evidenced
by Juv. Sat. 6, then having women actually fight men would have made
65 Seneca (Dial. 1.3.4) claims that gladiators themselves disliked unequal
matches because they deprived them of the opportunity for glory. [Quint.] DecJ.
maio 9.6 also indicates that Romans thought gladiators should be equally
matched.