Gladiatrices.

Been having a break from plastic Crimean figures this week , so for a total change I've got these female gladiators painted . I think they are 'West Wind' figures and I've had them ages and not properly finished off so it was time they got done . They owe more to 'Hollywood' than history and are VERY shapely ! , but are rather nice figures.

The case for female gladiator or 'Gladiatrix' rests mainly on the above relief of two gladiatrices Amazon and Achillia found at Halicarnassus and a few literary references - perhaps, the wordiest and the most critical statement of female gladiators in the writings from ancient Roman world are found in "Satires" of Juvenal, in which he condems gladiatrices from the highest classes. But even his mockery is evidence that noble women performed on the arena :-

"Who has not seen the dummies of wood they slash at and batter
Whether with swords or with spears, going through all the maneuvers?
These are the girls who blast on the trumpets in honour of Flora.
Or, it may be they have deeper designs, and are really preparing
For the arena itself. How can a woman be decent
Sticking her head in a helmet, denying the sex she was born with?
Manly feats they adore, but they wouldn’t want to be men,
Poor weak things (they think), how little they really enjoy it!
What a great honour it is for a husband to see, at an auction
Where his wife’s effects are up for sale, belts, shin-guards,
Arm-protectors and plumes!
Hear her grunt and groan as she works at it, parrying, thrusting;
See her neck bent down under the weight of her helmet.
Look at the rolls of bandage and tape, so her legs look like tree-trunks,
Then have a laugh for yourself, after the practice is over,
Armour and weapons put down, and she squats as she used the vessel.
Ah, degenerate girls from the line of our praetors and consuls,
Tell us, whom have you seen got up in any such fashion,
Panting and sweating like this? No gladiator’s wench,
No tough strip-tease broad would ever so much as attempt it".