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gravitystar, I'm really not disagreeing with you by and large -- I agree that warrior women and powerful women in general were often portrayed in negative ways by (male) ancient Greek and Roman historians. I'm just disagreeing with the idea that information about them was suppressed. As I said, they were generally regarded with a mix of fascination and revulsion. That's true of the Amazons too, they are often portrayed negatively but are sometimes shown as marrying the great heroes of Greece. (In the Trojan War epics, Achilles fatally wounds the Amazon queen Penthesilea in battle but falls in love with her as she lies dying.) It's also true of historical powerful women like Cleopatra, or Boadicea, who caused Romans an awful lot of trouble. Roman historians also mention that in their wars of conquest against the Celts, the Germans, and the Britons, the women of those nations often went out on the battlefield alongside the men -- a phenomenon that was treated as terrifying and barbaric, but also fascinating.

So, once again -- I think that if Xena or a Xena-like figure had actually existed, she would have gotten a lot of attention. A lot of it bad, but all publicity is good publicity, right?

(Actually I've seen speculation that Xena was partly based on the historical figure of Zenobia, a warrior queen who led an anti-Roman rebellion in Palmyra -- modern-day Syria, I believe -- but was ultimately captured by the Romans. However, I don't think there's any evidence that any of TPTB had Zenobia in mind when they created the character.)