Alexander ( discussor ) Alexander ( ) 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 " ( ) , for trimming down the size of gold coins . The main source about him is Procopius . Biography . 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 . Army payment . 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 . " Furthermore , they [ the Logothetai ] kept grinding down the soldiers with many other forms of penalties , as though to requite them thus for the dangers incurred in the wars , charging some with being " Greeks " , as though it were wholly impossible for any man from Greece to be a decent man , others with being in the service without an order from the Emperor , even though they could show , on this point , an imperial order , which , however , the Logothetes with no hesitation had the effrontery to denounce ; and others still they accused on the ground that for some days they had chanced to be absent from their comrades . Later on also some of the Palace Guards were sent out through the whole Roman Empire , and ostensibly they were in search of any among the armies who were quite unsuitable for active service ; and they dared to strip the belts from some of these as being unfit or too old , and these thereafter had to beg their bread from the pious in the public square of the market - place , so that they became a constant cause for tears and lamentation on the part of all who met them ; and from the rest they exacted great sums of money , to the end that they might not suffer the same fate , so that the soldiers , broken in manifold ways , had become the poorest of all men and had not the slightest zest for warfare . It was for just this reason that the Roman power came to be destroyed in Italy . " Thermopylae . In Alexander was sent in Italy , soon after the recall of Belisarius . He first made a stop at Thermopylae , where he re - organized the local defense . A guard mostly consisting of local farmers was replaced with regular troops . The cost of their presence there was effectively paid by all the cities of Greece . Their civic and entertainment funds were diverted to the imperial treasury under this pretext , a decision approved by Justinian . Procopius has a rather grim view of Alexander ' s handling of the situation : " The outpost at Thermopylae had from early times been under the care of the farmers of that region , and they used to take turns in guarding the wall there , whenever it was expected that some barbarians or other would make a descent upon the Peloponnesus . But when Alexander visited the place on the occasion in question , he , pretending that he was acting in the interests of the Peloponnesians , refused to entrust the outpost there to the farmers . So he stationed troops there to the number of two thousand and ordained that their pay should not be provided from the imperial Treasury , but instead he transferred to the Treasury the entire civic funds and the funds for the spectacles of all the cities of Greece , on the pretext that these soldiers were to be maintained therefrom , and consequently in all Greece , and not least in Athens itself , no public building was restored nor could any other needful thing be done . Justinian , however , without any hesitation confirmed these measures of " Snips . " " Italy . Once Alexander arrived in Italy , he took financial measures which proved unpopular . He increased the financial demands on the Italian cities and population , while reducing the funds of the army stationed there . Effectively alienating both groups . " Indeed , when Alexander the Logothete was sent thither [ Italy ] , he had the effrontery to lay these charges without compunction upon the soldiers , and he tried to exact money from the Italians , alleging that he was punishing them for their behaviour during the reign of Theoderic and the Goths . And it was not alone the soldiers who were oppressed by destitution and poverty through the conduct of the Logothetes , but also the subordinates who served all the generals , formerly a numerous and highly esteemed group , laboured under the burden of starvation and dire poverty . For they had not the means wherewith to provide themselves with their customary necessities . " Alexander took another controversial decision in abolishing the annual corn ration of the poor in Rome . It was an unnecessary expense for the state , but abolishing it ensured that the poor would starve . " Theoderic commanded that this custom be transmitted to their offspring and descendants . And to the beggars who had their station beside the Church of Peter the Apostle , he ordered that the Treasury should for ever supply each year three thousand measures of corn . These pensions all these beggars continued to receive until Alexander , called " Snips , " arrived in Italy . For this man decided immediately , without any hesitation , to abolish them all . Upon learning this , Justinian , Emperor of the Romans , put the stamp of his approval upon this course of action and held Alexander in still higher honour than formerly . " In 541 , Constantianus , Alexander and nine others led the Byzantine army against the city of Verona , a stronghold of the Ostrogoths . Their army was eventually defeated at the Battle of Faventia ( 542 ) . A letter of Totila to the Roman Senate mentions Alexander as an example " of imperial injustice and oppression " . This seems to be the last mention of him . His fate following Faventia is unknown .