By Svenja Grosser (also known as Medusa Gladiatrix from Ludus Nemesis)
The views of the author do not reflect the views of Esfinges

I have practiced gladiatorial combat reenactment for nearly eight years. My comrades (at the moment three men and one other woman) and I present the fights with explanations about the history of gladiators at museum events as well as at Roman or multiperiod festivals in Germany.

You are probably wondering why I do this. Maybe it seems unusual for a woman to practice the gladiatura and on top of that one coming from Hamburg, North Germany where the Romans never dwelt but only passed by on campaigns. Well, I was always fascinated by the Romans, especially the legions, presumably triggered by reading the Asterix comic books. Also I always felt attracted by swords and when visiting a Medieval castle I would prefer the armoury with the knights’ armour and swords to the other rooms.

My first contact with Martial Arts had been with the weaponless classical Asian types, i.e. Judo as a kid and as an adult for many years Wing Tsun.

In 2005 I visited the Roman festival at the museum of Kalkriese (presumed location of the Varus Battle) and that was for the first time I saw Roman living history. After that I wanted to do something like that as well and found via the Internet a Roman group nearby. Since there was never such a thing as a female legionary I had to choose to fight as a gladiator if I wanted to do any combat. There are enough references that women fought as serious combatants in the arena, the most famous one the relief from Halicarnassos (today’s Bodrum in Turkey) which shows two gladiatrices in the style of provocator. This relief is nowadays on display at the British Museum in London.

What did I know about gladiators? Not much, only what I saw in Hollywood movies such as Spartacus, Quo Vadis or Gladiator where gladiatorial combat was shown as senseless massacre. Articles in popular scientific journals also supported this view, that it was the darkest part of Roman culture. But I soon got hands onto real scientific literature and the more I researched the more I liked the topic. I also started to like to fight as a gladiator because I thought it more interesting than the legionary line fight with shield to shield. As a gladiator you fight an opponent who often has a very different armour to yours, e.g. a gladiator with scutum (large rectangular shield) and gladius (Roman short sword) fights against an opponent with small shield (rectuangular or round) with a sica (curved sword) or with a hasta (spear). The weirdest type of fighter is the retiarius who is equipped with net and trident and a dagger for close combat – and let me tell you the net is not just a gimmick…

Emperor Augustus reformed the gladiatura and determined which opponents a certain type of gladiator had to fight. Since my group is rather small and for a long time I was the only woman we did not stick to this ancient determination, e.g. I of course had to train with and fight the men of my group and not just another one with a large shield as would be authentic for my type of gladiator, i.e. the provocatorbut also a retiarius or thraex. I like both, fighting against another similar equipped gladiator or against one with totally different weapons.

As mentioned in the beginning we present gladiator fights at events which are not staged but free-fights together with explanations between two fights. We tell the audience about the history of gladiators, how it really was and what Hollywood made out of it, e.g. that thumbs-up – thumbs-down is purely Hollywood. Since my good friend and comrade Epona and I appear as gladiatrices women and especially girls feel attracted to our presentations because we act as role models with whom they can identify. A teacher told me in a chat that he was showing videos of our fights in history class and that this gave girls with a Muslim background self-confidence. This is a positive side effect I never expected.

For more information on the history of gladiators, the different types and also gladiatrices as well as pictures and videos of my group LVDVS NEMESIS please visit our homepage www.ludus-nemesis.eu

Read original here: http://esfinges1.wix.com/e/apps/blog/the-gladiatrix