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Female Gladiators? Tantalizing New Evidence From Ancient Rome


Stashed in: Women, History!, Badass!, XX, History, Anthropology!

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Oh thank GAWD:

The roughly 2,000-year-old artwork, which resides at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbein in Hamburg, shows a bare-chested woman in a loincloth brandishing a scythe-like object in her left hand.

Manas believes the woman is holding a sica, a short, curved sword associated with a type of gladiator known as a thraex, or Thracian. Thraexes typically fought in plumed helmets, with small shields and metal leg guards called greaves. Their unarmored backs were particularly vulnerable—and were likely ripe targets for sica.

Thankful because women or thankful because awesome?

Thankful it's a sword she is holding aloft.

Oh I see. Whew. 

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