Why does the ancient Roman gladiator statue have a strange posture?

Female gladiators are extremely rare images of the ancient Roman empire. However, the results from the study on a statue at the German Museum show that during this period, it was quite common to train women to become warriors in ancient arenas.

The bronze statue is about 2000 years old with the image of a naked woman with only a small piece of cloth wrapped around her waist, her left hand holding a high-posture-like scythe, expert Alfonso Manas from Dai Study Granada (Spain) said.

Ancient Roman female gladiator statue
with strange posture. (Photo: Alfonso Manas)

Manas believed that the object was the Sica sword - the short and curved sword used by Thrace fighters. When fighting, Thrace fighter often wears a helmet with feathers and a small shield, his shin is protected by a metal armor called 'greave' . Their unshielded back would be the target Sica aimed at.

However, before that, many scholars asserted that this curved scythe was 'strigil' , the type of device that the Romans used to cleanse their bodies when bathing.

'So just assume that the girl is bathing, raising it while facing the ground is completely meaningless,' Manas said. Moreover, 'a cloth wrapped around the' sensitive 'area is quite ridiculous because if you take a bath, you will have to remove the entire outfit'.

Meanwhile, the bowing of the head and swinging its arms up like the statue's posture is known to celebrate the typical victory of gladiators in ancient Roman art. At the end of the fight, the winner will remove the helmet so people can see their faces, according to Manas.

More specifically, a rule in the war is that gladiators (whether male or female) must be bare-chested. In addition to fighting duties, the female soldier's bare breasts will be an effective porn tool for audiences, Manas writes in the International Journal of Sports History.

Although these bizarre fights have been repeatedly mentioned in many documents about the ancient Roman world, its specific image is still extremely small.

Reference: Nationalgeographic