Alexander (discussor)

Alexander (Greek: Αλέξανδρος) was a senior financial official of the Byzantine Empire, active in the reign of Justinian I (r. 527–565). His title is reported as "discussor" in Latin and logothetēs in Greek. He was reportedly nicknamed "Scissors" or "Snips" (Greek: Ψαλίδιος), for trimming down the size of gold coins. The main source about him is Procopius.

His title is reported as "discussor" in Latin and logothetēs in Greek. While clearly a financial official, normally based at Constantinople, Alexander was reportedly sent on special missions and even assumed military duties. He may have held the additional titles of "scriniarius" (notary) or "numerarius" (accountant). His post being one specifically dealing with the military.

Procopius reports that Alexander became notorious for his practice of accusing the Byzantine army of defrauding the state. His office allowed him to save large sums of money for the state and also enrich himself, through questionable practices. "Nor assuredly is his treatment of the soldiers to be consigned to silence; for over them he put in authority the most villainous of all men, bidding them collect from this source as much as they could, and these officers were well aware that the twelfth part of what they should thus procure should fall to them. And he gave them the title of "Logothetes." And these each year devised the following scheme. According to a law the military pay is not given to all alike year after year, but when the men are still young and have only recently joined the army, the rate is lower, while for those who have been in service and are now at about the middle of the muster-roll, it grows larger. But when they have grown old and are on the point of being discharged from the army, the pay is very much more imposing, to the end not only that they may, when in future they are living as private citizens, have sufficient for their own maintenance, but may also, when it is their lot to have completely measured out the term of life, be able to leave from their own property some consolation to the members of their households. Thus time, by continuously promoting the soldiers who are lower down in the scale to the rank of those who have died or been discharged from the army, regulates on the basis of seniority the payments to be made from the Treasury to each man. But the Logothetes, as they are called, would not allow the names of the deceased to be removed from the rolls, even when great numbers died at one time from other causes, and especially, as was the case with the most, in the course of the numerous wars. Furthermore, they would no longer fill out the muster-rolls, and that too for a long period. And the result of this practice has proved unfortunate for all concerned — first, for the State in that the number of soldiers in active service is always deficient; secondly, for the surviving soldiers, in that they are elbowed out by those who have died long before and so find themselves left in a position inferior to what they deserve, and that they receive a pay which is lower than if they had the rank to which they are entitled; and, finally, for the Logothetes, who all this time have had to apportion to Justinian a share of the soldiers' money.

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