When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. This Roman-era relief depicts two female gladiators fighting each other in Halicarnassus, an ...

This rare depiction may be the greatest surviving monument to women in the Roman arena. In the British Museum, a marble relief from ancient Rome captures two named female gladiators in full combat.

The ban hints at moral panic, and possibly the clearest proof that female gladiators truly existed. Roman lawmakers took the unusual step of forbidding women from fighting as gladiators. The ban ...