Bestiarii
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Among Ancient Romans, bestiarii were those who went into combat with beasts, or were exposed to them. It is conventional to distinguish two categories of bestiarii: the first were those condemned to death by the beasts and the second were those who faced them voluntarily. The latter are in the general perception considered gladiators; to their contemporaries, they were a group distinct from the usual arena fighters however, with specialized training facilities; thus, not many arena fighters were apparently trained in both combat versus human opponents and animals. The contemporary term for those who made a career out of participating in arena "hunts" was venatores.
