Arbelas

The arbelas (plural "arbelai") was a type of ancient Roman gladiator. The word is a "hapax legomenon", occurring only in the "Oneirocritica" of Artemidorus, a Greek work on dream interpretation that discusses the symbolism of various gladiator types. It may be related to the Greek word "arbelos" (ἄρβηλος), a cobbler's semicircular blade used to cut leather similar to an ulu. 
A few reliefs show gladiators armed with a curved blade fighting each other; it has been argued that these (possibly also fighting "retiarii", the net-fighters) are "arbelai"; however, they have also been seen as the "scissores" who likewise may have been matched against "retiarii". The "scissor", with whom the "arbelas" may be synonymous, is referred to in a roll call from the gladiator training school "(ludus)" owned in the 1st century BC by the "lanista" C. Salvius Capito.
Artemidorus lists the "arbelas" among gladiators who might appear in dreams advising a man about what sort of woman he is to marry. Both the "dimachaerus", who fought with two curved blades, and the "so-called" "arbelas" signify that the woman will either be a poisoner, malicious, or ugly.