A female Gladiator was called a Gladiatrix.

A female Gladiator was called a Gladiatrix.

The gladiatrix (plural gladiatrices) is the female equivalent of the gladiator of ancient Rome. Like their male counterparts, female gladiators fought each other, or wild animals, to entertain audiences at various games and festivals. ... They were almost certainly considered an exotic rarity by their audiences.

gladiatrix

Women who fought in the gladiatorial arena, those we now call gladiatrix, ticked all these boxes. In the Roman world, war and combat were considered to be for men, so women wearing armour and fighting one another was a real spectacle! One of the most famous depictions of gladiatrix can be found in the British Museum.

Female gladiators in ancient Rome – referred to by modern-day scholars as gladiatrix – may have been uncommon but they did exist. ... The term gladiatrix was never used in ancient times; it is a modern word first applied to female gladiators in the 1800's CE.

But while it's true that the Romans would not have had female soldiers in their armies, they certainly encountered women in battle – and when they did it created quite a stir. The historians of the ancient world recorded tales of impressive female military commanders from across many cultures.