Editing Gladiator (section)

===Women===
{{main|Gladiatrix}}
From the 60s AD [[female gladiator]]s appear as rare and "exotic markers of exceptionally lavish spectacle".<ref name="Futrell 2006 153–156">{{harvnb|Futrell|2006|pp=153–156}}.</ref> In 66 AD, [[Nero]] had Ethiopian women, men and children fight at a ''munus'' to impress the King [[Tiridates I of Armenia]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wiedemann|1992|p=112}}; {{harvnb|Jacobelli|2003|p=17}}, citing Cassius Dio, 62.3.1.</ref> Romans seem to have found the idea of a female gladiator novel and entertaining, or downright absurd; Juvenal titillates his readers with a woman named "Mevia", hunting boars in the arena "with spear in hand and breasts exposed",<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobelli|2003|p=17}}, citing Juvenal's ''Saturae'', 1.22–1.23.</ref> and [[Petronius]] mocks the pretensions of a rich, low-class citizen, whose ''munus'' includes a woman fighting from a cart or chariot.<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobelli|2003|p=18}}, citing Petronius's ''Satyricon'', 45.7.</ref> A ''munus'' of 89 AD, during [[Domitian]]'s reign, featured a battle between female gladiators, described as "Amazons".<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobelli|2003|p=18}}, citing Dio Cassius 67.8.4, Suetonius's ''Domitianus'' 4.2, and Statius's ''Silvae'' 1.8.51–1.8.56: see also Brunet (2014) p. 480.</ref> In Halicarnassus, a 2nd-century AD relief depicts two female combatants named "Amazon" and "Achillia"; their match ended in a draw.<ref name="Jacobelli 2003 18">{{harvnb|Jacobelli|2003|p=18}}; {{harvnb|Potter|2010|p=408}}.</ref> In the same century, an epigraph praises one of [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]]'s local elite as the first to "arm women" in the history of its games.<ref name="Jacobelli 2003 18" /> Female gladiators probably submitted to the same regulations and training as their male counterparts.<ref>{{harvnb|Potter|2010|p=408}}.</ref> Roman morality required that all gladiators be of the lowest social classes, and emperors who failed to respect this distinction earned the scorn of posterity. [[Cassius Dio]] takes pains to point out that when the much admired emperor [[Titus]] used female gladiators, they were of acceptably low class.<ref name="Futrell 2006 153–156" />

Some regarded female gladiators of any type or class as a symptom of corrupted Roman appetites, morals and womanhood. Before he became emperor, [[Septimius Severus]] may have attended the [[Antioch]]ene Olympic Games, which had been revived by the emperor [[Commodus]] and included traditional Greek female athletics. Septimius' attempt to give Rome a similarly dignified display of female athletics was met by the crowd with ribald chants and cat-calls.<ref>{{harvnb|Potter|2010|p=407}}.</ref> Probably as a result, he banned the use of female gladiators in 200 AD.<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobelli|2003|p=18}}, citing Dio Cassius 75.16.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Potter|2010|p=407}}, citing Dio Cassius 75.16.1.</ref>