CONFECTOR, among the ancient Romans, a sort of gladiator, hired to fight in the amphitheatre against beasts; thence also denominated bestiarius.
The confectores were thus called à conficiendis bestiis, from their dispatching and killing beasts.
The Greeks called them παράβολαι. q. d. daring, rash, desperate; whence the Latins borrowed the appellations parabolani and parabolarii. The Christians were sometimes condemned to this sort of combat.