Roman mosaic shows topless woman battling leopard in arena, study finds

A mosaic shows a diamond cut out of a black leopard on the left and a woman wearing a white skirt holding a whip on the right. .

For the first time ever, an image of a Roman woman battling a beast in an arena has been identified.

While ancient texts say that some women battled beasts in the arenas of the Roman Empire, this is the first visual evidence that this occurred, according to a new study published March 22 in The International Journal of the History of Sport. The women who battled beasts were known as venatrices or huntresses.