Gladiatrix by Russell Whitfield

Female gladiators were a popular novelty act in the Roman arenas towards the end of the first century AD.   Women versus dwarves was a good filler in between the serious bouts giving the crowd someting to look at whilst buying an ice cream or whatever their favoured snacks were.   Russell Whitfield's book is set in the Eastern Empire in the city of Halicarnassus where, he would have us believe, gladiatrices were as popular as men.   The story opens with Lysandra, a Spartan priestess of Athene, being shipwrecked and washed ashore where she is picked up by men from the ludus of Balbus the premier trainer of gladiatrices in the area.   Despite her protests that she is a free woman he enslaves her and puts her to training for the arena.   However, as she has already been trained in martial arts as a priestess, no Mother Teresas in Sparta, she quickly becomes a rival to the Prima Gladiatrix and also the lover of her girlfriend.   This rivalry is the backbone of the book and around it Russell Whitfield has written a splendid blood and guts saga that keeps the pages turning which is all that one can ask.