midgets: a short history

Recently there was a story about an African lion fighting a group of midgets in Cambodia. The match was arranged- and this is a true story- by the Cambodian midget league and some guy who made a bet that a lion could take on and defeat all 42 members of this midget league (apparently their charter states they will "fight anything- man, machine or beast") so this bad-ass lion was imported from Africa and they organised the match. The lion won and killed almost thirty of the midgets.
Thoughts:
-There is a Cambodian midget league?? What the fuck?
-Why are midgets fighting a lion? What on earth is going on in this world?
But midgets have always had a strange history. In the days of ancient Rome they were a part of the entertainment in a way you wouldn't expect. It's a myth that gladiators fought lions one-on-one, but they did have different animals fighting each other and the half-time entertainment was usually a few public executions to get the crowd in the mood. Anyway in the evening when all that had died down, female gladiators were then picked to fight a midget by torchlight. This is absolutely true. It did get me thinking a few things like: FEMALE GLADIATORS?? Did the emperor find midget vs female gladiator as some kind of twisted joke that people would chuckle about many centuries later and hail him for his comic genius? And why didn't they fight in the daytime? It also makes you realize that half-time entertainment has really come a long way. We have cheerleaders now.