This passage from Seutonius is important in our understanding of how much esteem Domitian placed on the gladiatrix. We know from many sources that the itinerary the games. The mornings were reserved for the wild beast hunts, affording the Roman public to see the diverse and often bizarre animals the expanding Empire

was discovering on foreign shores. The lunchtime break was set aside for the execution of criminals often “ad besitas” – by animals, though other, more inventive methods were sometimes used.

The afternoon and evening was the time of the main event, the gladiatorial combats. That Seutonius tells us the gladiatrices fought “by torchlight” (that is to say, during the evening, the time of the main events) is evidence that these bouts were taken in all seriousness by the Emperor, though it must be said that the female combats never superseded the male gladiators in interest or importance. One can draw analogies with modern-day football. The women’s game has its core of fans, but the sport remains dominated by the men – thus it was in the gladiatorial combat. The greater prestige given to men is evidenced by the bizarre opponents the gladiatrices were sometimes made to fight. The poet Statius tells us that they were even pitted against pygmies in one exhibition!