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New evidence of female gladiators: the bronze statuette at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe of Hamburg

2011; Routledge; Volume: 28; Issue: 18 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2011.618267

1743-9035

Alfonso Manas,

Linguistic and Cultural Studies

Abstract The study of female gladiatorial combat encounters the obstacle of the dearth of sources that give testimony of it. Ten literary fragments and one epigraphic inscription is all the written evidence that speaks to us of those women. About graphic sources, the panorama is still more desolate, since a relief found in Halicarnassus is the sole representation we have of gladiator women. Yet, this is so because scholars may not have been able to interpret correctly some other artistic works we have from the Roman period. In this article, I propose that a bronze statuette, currently kept at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe of Hamburg, that scholars have traditionally considered as representing a female athlete holding a strigil, actually depicts a female gladiator (more specifically, a thraex, a gladiatorial type that fought with a short-curved dagger, a weapon that to the untrained eye can be confused with a strigil). Nouvelles preuves de gladiatrices : La statuette de bronze du Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe d'Hamburg L'étude de combats de gladiatrices se heurte à l'obstacle du manque de sources qui en donnent témoignage. Les preuves écrites qui nous parlent de ces femmes se réduisent à dix fragments littéraires et une inscription épigraphique. Le paysage est encore plus désolé pour les sources graphiques, puisqu'un bas-relief trouvé à Halicarnassus est la seule représentation que nous avons de gladiatrices. Pourtant, ceci est le cas parce que les chercheurs ont pu ne pas interpréter correctement quelques autres œuvres artistiques que nous avons de la période romaine. Dans cet article, je propose qu'une statuette de bronze, actuellement gardée au Musée für Kunst und Gewerbe de Hambourg et que les chercheurs ont traditionnellement considéré comme la représentation d'un athlète féminin tenant une petite pelle, dépeigne en réalité une gladiatrice (plus spécifiquement une thraex, un type de gladiateur qui se battait avec un petit poignard courbé, une arme qui, pour un œil non formé, peut être confondu avec une petite pelle). Nuevas pruebas sobre la existencia de gladiadoras: la estatuilla de bronce del Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe de Hamburgo El estudio de la lucha entre gladiadoras se enfrenta al obstáculo que supone la escasez de fuentes que se refieren a ella. La evidencia escrita que nos habla de la existencia de estas mujeres se limita a diez fragmentos literarios y una inscripción epigráfica. El panorama es aún más desolador en el campo de las fuentes gráficas, ya que la única representación que nos ha llegado de una gladiadora es un relieve hallado en Halicarnaso. No obstante, una causa de esta escasez puede haber sido que los investigadores no han sido capaces de interpretar correctamente otras obras de arte que nos han llegado del periodo romano. En este artículo propongo que una estatuilla de bronce conservada actualmente en el Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe de Hamburgo, que los investigadores han considerado tradicionalmente como una representación de una atleta con un estrígilo en la mano, en realidad se trata de una gladiadora (más concretamente una thraex o gladiadora tracia, un tipo de gladiador que luchaba con una espada corta y curvada, un arma que a ojos de un profano se puede confundir con un estrígilo). Neue Belege über weibliche Gladiatoren: Die Bronzestatuette im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg Das Studium der weiblichen Gladiatorenkämpfe muss sich mit einem Mangel an Quellen auseinandersetzen, die Informationen über die Existenz dieser Kämpfe geben. Zehn literarische Bruchstücke und eine epigrafische Anweisung sind die gesamten schriftlichen Belege, die uns von diesen Frauen berichten. Im Hinblick auf bildliche Quellen ist die Lage sogar noch schlechter, da es nur in Halicarnassus gefundenes ein Relief gibt, das weibliche Gladiatoren abbildet. Allerdings könnte dies auch daran liegen, dass Wissenschaftler nicht in der Lage waren, andere künstlerische Arbeiten aus der Römischen Zeit richtig zu interpretieren. In diesem Artikel argumentiere ich, dass eine Bronzestatuette, die sich derzeit im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg befindet und die von Wissenschaftlern traditionell als eine Repräsentation einer Strigilis haltendenden, weiblichen Athletin betrachtet wird, in Wirklichkeit eine weibliche Gladiatorin darstellt (genauer gesagt eine Thraex, ein Gladiatorentyp, der mit einem Kurzschwert gekämpft hat, das von einem Laien leicht mit einer Strigilis verwechselt werden kann). Keywords: female gladiatorsgladiaturasportmass spectator sportarmed combat sportsMots-clés: gladiatricesgladiaturesportspectacle sportif de massecombats sportifs en armePalabras clave: gladiadorasgladiaturadeportedeporte de seguimiento masivodeportes de combate armadoSchlagwörter: weibliche GladiatorenGladiaturSportMassenpublikumssportbewaffneter Kampfsport Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the collaboration of the staff of the MKG, who during my visit kindly helped me in my research about the statuette. I would like also to express my gratitude to the anonymous referees for their learned and detailed observations. Notes 1. Coleman, 'Missio at Halicarnassus', 498. The use by the sources of one term or the other (femina or mulier) is significant. 2. In year 19, the senatus consultum of Larinum prohibits relatives (of both sexes, up to the third generation) of equites and senators to appear in the arena and on the stage. Such acts are labelled by the text (lines 5–6) as 'contrary to the dignity' of those classes and harmful for the 'dignity of the Senate'. The decree confirms previous prohibitions against the participation of the elites as combatants –or otherwise– in the arena (a decree of the year 11, see Edmondson, 'Dynamic Arenas', 104). In conclusion, it states that freeborn people could not offer themselves for rent nor could anybody hire them for such purposes, the ban extending even to 'non-lethal' practice and exhibition combats (Ville, La gladiature en Occident, 246–70; Levick, 'The Senatus Consultum from Larinum', 97–115; Lebek, 'Standeswürde und Berufsverbot unter Tiberius', 37–96 and Barton, The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans, 25–7; Newbold, 'Cassius Dio and the Games', 589–604). Senatus Consultum de Larinum: 'S C | [---] in Palatio, … 'de s(enatus) c(onsultis) ad liberos] [senato]rum pertinentibus aut ad eos, qui contra dignitatem ordinis sui … senatoris filium filiam, nepotem neptem, pronepotem proneptem, … [u]el paterno uel materno … in equestribus locis, … ut pinnas gladiatorum raperet aut ut rudem tolleret … si contra dignitatem ordi-] [nis su]i faceret, libitinam habe{p} et, praeterquam: … aut gladiatore aut lanista aut lenone. … [minor qu]am an(norum) XX neue cui ingenuo qui minor quam an(norum) XXV esset auctorare …'. 3. Plutarch, Moralia, 241c7 (Spartan women being taught to use the sword). Greek sources contain several references to women fighting in battle, one even saying that one of those females managed to kill a man (Loman, 'No Woman, No War', 47), but all these accounts refer to the military field, which is not the subject of study here. 4. Nicolaus of Damascus (64 aC-?), Athletica, 4.153 (fragment included below). 5. Lebek, 'Standeswürde und Berufsverbot unter Tiberius', 60–1, lines 7–9 and 17–18; Crowther, Sport in Ancient Times, 152. 6. Nicolaus of Damascus, Athletica, 4.153: 'The Romans staged spectacles of fighting gladiators, a practice they were given by the Etruscans, not merely at their festivals and in their theatres, but also at their banquets. That is, some would invite their friends to dinner and to other pleasant pastimes, but in addition they might witness two or three pairs of gladiators. When they were all sated with dining and drink, they called in the gladiators. No sooner did one have his throat cut than the masters applauded with delight. And sometimes it chanced that someone had specified in his will that the most beautiful women he had bought must fight among them, and even someone else had ordered that two boys, his favourites, must do that'. Nicolaus's statement that the Etruscans are the origin of gladiatorial combats in Rome is a matter of debate for scholars. In fact, the scholarly consensus now argues for a Campanian origin (Gregori, Ludi e munera, 15). 7. Petronius, Satyricon, 45.7: 'Iam Manios aliquot habet et mulierem essedariam et dispensatorem Glyconis'. 8. Tacitus, Annales, 15.32: 'Eodem anno Caesar nationes Alpium maritimarum in ius Latii transtulit. equitum Romanorum locos sedilibus plebis anteposuit apud circum; namque ad eam diem indiscreti inibant, quia lex Roscia nihil nisi de quattuordecim ordinibus sanxit. spectacula gladiatorum idem annus habuit pari magnificentia ac priora; sed feminarum inlustrium senatorumque plures per arenam foedati sunt'. 9. Dio Cassius, 62.17.3: 'There was another exhibition that was at once most disgraceful and most shocking, when men and women not only of the equestrian but even of the senatorial order appeared as performers in the orchestra, in the Circus, and in the hunting-theatre, like those who are held in lowest esteem. Some of them played the flute and danced in pantomimes or acted in tragedies and comedies or sang to the lyre; they drove horses, killed wild beasts and fought as gladiators, some willingly and some sore against their will'. Brunet ('Female and Dwarf Gladiators', 145) believes that this episode is the same as the one recorded by Tacitus Annales 15.32 (above). Yet, Dio sets the action in some games held in 59 in honour of Agrippina, whereas Tacitus sets it in some anonymous games staged in 63. Brunet thinks that Tacitus changed the date to make the appearance of noblewomen in the arena coincide with the most degenerate stage of Nero, which the Annales say started in 62. 10. Martial, Spect., 6: 'Belliger invictis quod Mars tibi servit in armis, non satis est, Caesar, servit et ipsa Venus'. 11. Statius, Silvae, 1.6.53–54: [during the Saturnalia] 'stat sexus rudis, insciusque ferri ut pugnas capit improbus viriles!'. 12. Juvenal, Satura, 6.246–67: 'endromidas Tyrias et femineum ceroma quis nescit, uel quis non uidit uulnera pali, quem cauat adsiduis rudibus scutoque lacessit atque omnis implet numeros dignissima prorsus Florali matrona tuba, nisi si quid in illo pectore plus agitat ueraeque paratur harenae? quem praestare potest mulier galeata pudorem, quae fugit a sexu? uires amat. haec tamen ipsa uir nollet fieri; nam quantula nostra uoluptas! quale decus, rerum si coniugis auctio fiat, balteus et manicae et cristae crurisque sinistri dimidium tegimen! uel si diuersa mouebit proelia, tu felix ocreas uendente puella . hae sunt quae tenui sudant in cyclade, quarum delicias et panniculus bombycinus urit. aspice quo fremitu monstratos perferat ictus et quanto galeae curuetur pondere, quanta poplitibus sedeat quam denso fascia libro, et ride positis scaphium cum sumitur armis. dicite uos, neptes Lepidi caeciue Metelli Gurgitis aut Fabii, quae ludia sumpserit umquam hos habitus? quando ad palum gemat uxor Asyli?' This satire was written no earlier than the year 115, since it refers to a cometand an earthquake that occurred that year (Coffey, Roman Satire, 123). About the Floralia games mentioned, women played a special role in them, so that it would be an appropriate occasion for women fighting as gladiators (Wiseman, 'The Games of Flora', 195). 13. Suetonius, Domitianus, 4.1: 'Nam venationes gladiatoresque et noctibus ad lychnuchos, nec virorum modo pugnas, sed et feminarum '. 14. Dio Cassius, 67.8.4: 'Often he [Domitian] would conduct the games also at night, and sometimes he would pit dwarfs and women against each other'. According to Brunet ('Female and Dwarf Gladiators', 150–51) this episode and the one recorded by Suetonius Domitianus 4.1 (note above) might be the same one. 15. Ville, 'La Gladiature en Occident', 264 n 75; Coleman 'Missio at Halicarnassus', 487–500. The relief is kept today at the British Museum. 16. CIL, IX, 2237: '[Qui] primus om[niu]m [ab urbe condita ludus cum…] mulieres [a]d ferrum dedit'. Coleman ('Missio at Halicarnassus', 498) specifies that 'The diction is significant: these were "women" (mulieres), not "ladies" (feminae). And if Hostilianus' female gladiators were a "first" at Ostia, comparable displays had doubtless already been mounted elsewhere. Evidently such a display was something for an entrepreneur to be proud of; the wording does not betray any parody … An alternative possibility, that these women were executed in Hostilianus' show, is suggested by Maurizio Fora, Epigrafia anfiteatrale dell'occidente romano. IV. Regio Italiae I: Latium (Rome 1996) n°. 29 (at 65–66). No precise parallel for the phrase ad ferrum dare exists in either sense ("display in combat" or "execute"). But exhibere ad ferrum in the sense "display in combat" is attested at Suet. Nero 12.1, and in the context of scoring a local "first", a display of gladiators may seem to have offered more of a novelty than an execution' (executions of women had been usual practice for centuries). On the inscription, see also Vesley 'Gladiatorial training for girls', 91 and Cebeillac-Gervasoni, 'Révisions et nouveautés pour trois inscriptions d'Ostie', 612–18. 17. Dio Cassius, 76.16.1: 'There took place also during those days a gymnastic contest, at which so great a multitude of athletes assembled, under compulsion, that we wondered how the course could contain them all. And in this contest women took part, vying with one another most fiercely, with the result that jokes were made about other very distinguished women as well. Therefore it was henceforth forbidden for any woman, no matter what her origin, to fight in single combat [μονομαχϵîν]'. Paradoxically, although it was a gymnastic competition (γυναικϵς) that caused the jokes, the decision was to ban women from competing in monomachia (gladiatura). This has only two explanations, (1) that that gymnastic contest included gladiatorial fights (which would reinforce the thesis that they considered gladiatura as another sport) or (2) that the gymnastic-competition incident was used as a mere excuse to prohibit another activity they had wanted to ban for a long time. Coleman ('Missio at Halicarnassus', 498) suggests that 'the phrase καί ές τάς άλλας πάνυ έπιϕανϵîς seems to imply that the participants were themselves upper-class and thereby brought opprobrium on their entire class by their performance'. 18. 'Gladiatrix' is an artificial word invented in modern times. 19. McCullough, 'Female Gladiators in Imperial Rome', 198. 20. Juvenal, Sat., 6.266: 'dicite uos, neptes Lepidi caeciue Metelli Gurgitis aut Fabii, quae ludia sumpserit umquam hos habitus? quando ad palum gemat uxor Asyli?'. 21. Ville, La gladiature en Occident, 330 n.226. Piernavieja ('Ludia: un terme sportif latin chez Juvenal et Martial', 1037–40) and Watson ('Two Problems in Martial', 588) proved that to translate ludiarum as 'wives or lovers of gladiators' in that line is the right translation, refuting thus those who translated it as 'actresses'. For his part, Jackson ('Gladiators in Roman Britain', 18) mentions the inscription 'VERECVNDA LVDIA LVCIUS GLADIATOR' (written on a shard of red pottery with a hole drilled into it so that it could possibly be worn as a necklace, found in Leicester) and suggests that it could be translated as 'Verecunda the dancer (or woman gladiator), Lucius the gladiator'. In the same line, Ricci (Gladiatori e attori nella Roma giulio-claudia, 97) thinks that very likely Verecunda was a woman gladiator and that she would be a member of the familia gladiatoria of Lucius (so that they were colleagues and a couple). Yet, few share this view, most experts opting for translating 'ludia' as 'woman connected with the ludus (gladiatorial school)'. 22. The gladiatorial type essedarius fought on a Briton war chariot, called essedum, hence its name (Caesar, De Bello Gallico, 4.33; Suetonius, Caligula, 35.7). 23. As Coleman ('Missio at Halicarnassus', 500) says, 'Differences in male and female physique would preclude an evenly matched encounter between a male and female combatant', so that a monomachia combat between a man and a woman would have never been staged in the arenas of the amphitheatres. Nonetheless, Cerutti ('The Retiarius Tunicatus of Suetonius, Juvenal, and Petronius', 594) finds in Satyricon 9.7–10 evidence to suggest that tunicati gladiators (effeminates) could have been pitted against women in single combat. In that fragment, Ascyltos, in the course of a quarrel with Encolpius, calls him 'gladiator obscene [effeminate], quem de ruina arena demisit. Non taces, nocturne percussor, qui ne turn quidem cum fortiter faceres cum pura muliere pugnasti '. In any case, that would not be considered as a real fight, in the same way that an effeminate man (a cinaedus) was not considered a real man (Martial, Epigrammata, 5.41). Thus, that number would be just a comic entertainment for the public, one of the several performances that filled the gaps between one real combat and the next. The absence of contests between a man and a woman is not exclusive to gladiatorial sport, but it was also a feature of Greek sport. Even the Spartans, who gave both sexes the same athletic training, only allowed women to compete among themselves (Lee, 'Did Women Compete against Men in Greek Athletic Festivals?', 107). 24. In the case of Atalanta and of the goddess Diana, their use of the bow is not due to the fact that they are hunters, since male hunters, such as Hercules or Meleager, do not use the bow. 25. Damnati ad gladium were convicts sentenced to die by the sword. 26. Gladiators used to train by fighting against their equals and instructors of the ludus, but also by fighting against the palus, a pole stuck in the ground that was c. 6 feet high (1.78 m, like a man). Vegetius (Epitoma De Re Militari, 1.11) gives us a complete description of how soldiers trained against the palus (that training method was so effective that it was introduced from ludi to the Roman army). 27. Spending free time and staying in shape, the very same two motivations that seem to have moved to the famous 'bikini girls' we see doing sport in the mosaic of Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, early 4th century. 28. There are two written sources that suggest that short hair was something that women did not choose voluntarily, so that it is logical to think that those who wore it were not free (i.e. they were slaves). The first is Suetonius Augustus 45: 'ut Stephanionem togatarium, cui in puerilem habitum circumtonsam matronam ministrasse compererat'. The second is Suetonius Nero 44.1: 'In praeparanda expeditione primam curam habuit deligendi vehicula portandis scaenicis organis concubinasque, quas secum educeret, tondendi ad virilem modum et securibus peltisque Amazonicis instruendi'. When feminae trained or fought in the arena they logically did it wearing their hair long as usual. 29. No one could force a femina to do anything against her will basically because in the context of that patriarchal society the pater familias she depended on (either her father or her husband, if she was married) would allow no one to oblige her to do anything against her will. The sole three references that tell us of nobles performing as gladiators against their will are Suetonius Caligula 35.2 (when Caligula compelled Aesius Proculus to fight), Dio 59.8.3 (Caligula obliges Atanius Secundus to fight) and Dio 62.17.3, when he says that in one exhibition some nobles (both males and females) appeared in the arena under Nero, specifying that 'some did it willingly and some sore against their will'). Apart from this, in the rest of the occasions in which we find high-class people fighting in the arena (and no coercion is mentioned) we assume they do it out of their free will. 30. McCullough, 'Female Gladiators in Imperial Rome', 207. 31. CIL, II, 6278 (=ILS, 5163), line 46: 'quartam portionem liber, serus autem quintam accipiat'. Also Carter, 'Gladiatorial Ranking and the SC de pretiis gladiatorum minuendis', 104–5. 32. Again CIL, II, 6278 (=ILS, 5163), line 46. 33. The collegia iuvenum were institutions that appeared under the auspices of Augustus to instruct young men born free in various disciplines, including the use of arms and the arts of war. Although each collegium had its own playing field, its members used to go to exercise to the campus of the city – in Rome the campus martius (Vegetius, De Re Militari, 1.10; Devijer, 'Il campus nell'impianto urbanistico delle cittá romane', 33 and 'Ancora sul campus delle cittá romane', 21; Torelli, 'Il "diribitorium" di Alba Fucens e il "campus" eroico di Herdonia', 40; Coarelli, Il Campo Marzio, 22; Bouet, 'Campus et Juventus', 461; Borlenghi, Il campus nell'Italia romana e nelle province occidentali, 34 and 'Il campus: un spazio pubblico a destinazione ludica e atletica nella cittá romana', 35). 34. Vesley, 'Gladiatorial Training for Girls in the Collegia Iuvenum of the Roman Empire', 88–90. 35. Schäfer, 'Frauen in der arena', 243; Liberati, 'Le associazioni giovanili', 27–34. 36. Munera (plural of munus, 'gladiatorial fight'). 37. Wiedemann, Emperors and Gladiators, 112. As Bartman ('The Mock Face of Battle', 115) notes, women from the east were known for their violence and even for their skill in battle. It seems that even some of those warrior women from the east became members of certain units of the Roman army, because in the Roman cemetery of Brougham (England), headquarters of a unit of foreign cavalry, several tombs of women have been found containing weapons, horses' bones and objects connected to the Danube region. According to Cool ('The Roman Cemetery at Brougham, Cumbria. Excavations 1966–67', 317) this may indicate that those women belonged to that unit, which would be an irregular numerus equitum attached to the Roman cavalry. Equally, in the triumphal parade of Aurelian in 274, the chariot of the emperor was preceded by 10 women who were made prisoners when they were fighting in the Gothic ranks dressed like men. They paraded under a titulus that said that they were Amazons (Historia Augusta, Aurelianus, 34.1: 'ducta sunt et decem mulieres, quas virili habitu pugnantes inter Gothos ceperat, cum multae essent interemptae, quas de Amazonum genere titulus indicabat'). The Tractatus de Mulieribus also mentions 10 warrior women. 38. Pringle, 'Gladiatrix', 48–55; Alberge, 'Woman Gladiator Found Buried in London'. In that article by Alberge, the then director of the Museum of London (Dr. Thurley) said that the particular combination of artefacts and burial method pointed inextricably to the dead woman as a female gladiator. McCullough ('Female Gladiators in Imperial Rome', 201), after studying the issue, concludes that 'because of its speculative identity and therefore questionable relevance and reliability' that London finding cannot be used for the research on female gladiators. This opinion is shared by Mackinder (A Romano-British Cemetery on Watling Street, 10); Wisdom ('Hail Caesar! Those who are about to die salute thee', 7–15) and Brunet ('Female and Dwarf Gladiators', 152). On 2 July 2010, the press was again rash in saying that the remains of what might be a female gladiator had been found (this time at Credenhill, Herefordshire, England), though in this case there is absolutely no evidence suggesting that that woman could have been a gladiator (the press articles then published mention that she was buried in a special coffin that denoted she was a person of a certain status and that she had unusually strongly-built bones and large muscle insertions, which only proves that she was a heavily muscled woman (i.e. that she had done a lot of physical work during her lifetime, although this is not at all automatic proof of her being a gladiator) (BBC, 'Female 'Gladiator' Remains Found in Herefordshire')). 39. The names were obviously chosen to evoke the fight between Achilles and the Amazon queen Penthesilea. The name Achilles appears in feminine form (χιλλία) to adapt to the reality of that gladiatorial fight (i.e. the Greek hero is impersonated by a woman). 40. Briquel 'Les femmes gladiateurs', 53. 41. Hirschfeld (The Collection of Ancient Greek Inscriptions in the British Museum, 83 n° 911) thinks that, actually, this pair of gladiators are male, citing Stephanus of Byzantium for the use of μαζων as a masculine name, and explaining that χιλλία comes from the nominative χιλλίας (the lack of the final ς being an error rather than a lacuna, since there is no room for another letter where the inscription is carved). However, this idea of χιλλίας being the name of a male gladiator loses strength to the evidence that other inscriptions attest the existence of four male gladiators named χιλλϵύς (three in Robert, Les Gladiateurs dans l'Orient grec, 300–2 and a fourth in Robert, 'Monuments de gladiateurs dans l'Orient grec', 92 n°320), which would be the common masculine form of the name (instead of χιλλίας). However, we should also consider the possibility of a man bearing a female name as a stage name, which is a practice still in use today (e.g. the football star Alfredo di Stefano was called 'La saeta rubia' ('the fair-haired bolt', bolt in Spanish is feminine). 'La bestia' ('the beast', also feminine in Spanish) is another common nickname for sportsmen in the Spanish speaking countries). 42. Amazons are represented with one breast uncovered (the right one) in the relief of a sarcophagus of 180 BC found in Thessalonica. Yet, Roman representations of Amazons with both breasts uncovered are abundant (Nista, 'Materiali marmorei dalla valle dell'anfiteatro', 114) and so they are described fighting by Propertius (Elegiae, 3.14): 'qualis amazonidum nudatis bellica mammis'. Interestingly, some Greek sculptures of female athletes also represent them wearing a tunic that leaves the right breast uncovered (Serwint, 'Athletic Costume at the Heraia', 407, 408), maybe by influence of the Amazons (because there is no practical benefit a female athlete may get from running with her right breast uncovered… and in the context of Greek sport we cannot think of trying to exert an erotic lure on male spectators, since Greek female athletes wearing that attire mainly performed at the Heraia games of Olympia, where spectators were predominantly women (Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.16.2–4). 43. Suetonius Nero 44.1 (note 28 above) tells us that in the spring of 68 Nero decided to put down a rebellion in Gaul and, since he was at war, he thought that his concubines should adopt a more warlike appearance, so he resolved to give them the aspect of Amazons; in order to achieve that he had their hair trimmed like a man's and equipped them with Amazonian weapons. 44. The analogy with today's female tennis players is very strong, including the screams when hitting, just as female gladiators did (Juvenal, 6.261: 'aspice quo fremitu monstratos perferat ictus'). Actually, a medallion of the 1st–2nd century represents a man and a woman having sexual intercourse. She is completely naked, like her lover, and is holding a dagger in her right hand and a scutum in her left. She is obviously playing the role of a woman gladiator, which in the sexual context can be interpreted as implying dominant behaviour since the image represents her straddling the man (photo in Teyssier, La Mort en face: Le dossier Gladiateurs, 430). As Guttmann (The Erotic in Sports, 30) says, 'others seem to have shared similar fantasies', referring to Propertius, Elegiae 3.14: 'virgineumque cavo protegit aere caput, qualis Amazonidum nudatis bellica mammis Thermodontiacis turba lavatur aquis; qualis et Eurotae Pollux et Castor harenis, hic victor pugnis, ille futurus equis, inter quos Helene nudis capere arma papillis fertur nec fratres erubuisse deos'. Although the fragment by Propertius is devoted to Spartan girls (so he says in the first lines of the poem) it is evident that he alludes to (and got much of his inspiration from) female gladiators. 45. Robert, Les Gladiateurs dans l'Orient grec, 189. 46. Suetonius, Nero, 12.2; Martial, Spect., 5. 47. On the attraction that gladiators exerted on women, Juvenal 6.104 (Eppia); Historia Augusta, Marcus, 19 (Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius); Petronius, Satyricon, 126. As Barton (The Sorrows of the Ancient Romans, 47) says, the gladiator was an 'erotically charged figure'. Guttmann (The Erotic in Sports, 32) points out that 'the gladiator who entered the arena and risked his life in armed combat was sexually attractive … his physical presence excited women of every social class'. 48. The erotic charge is evident in the highest level of female competition in sports such as beach volleyball (where the federation of that sport imposes on players specific clothing so that the sport would become more interesting for male spectators), athletics (with a similar minimal clothing, although in this case, not by federative imposition but by choice of the athletes, to optimise their performance), swimming, etc. Examples of sportswomen who have become genuine sex symbols of the tracks are Yelena Isinbaieva (first woman to exceed 5 m in pole vault), Kornelia Ender (the queen of swimming in Montreal 1976), etc. who nevertheless have always been also recognised as the great athletes they are. Obviously, a woman – or a man – will always be erotic to a possible audience (Guttmann, The Erotic in Sports, 10–11: 'there is an inherent erotic element in doing and watching sports … many men and women, from classical antiquity to modern times, have responded to sports as if they were inherently erotic'.) In this respect, in April 2011, the Badminton World Federation made it compulsory for their female players to compete wearing a skirt, in order to offer 'a more attractive profile of the sport for spectators' (Srivastava, 'Badminton playe