Account of Corruption in the Late Roman Army

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Hi,

I remember reading about an account of an officer listing his unit as paper strength and taking the pay of the missing soldiers for himself in the Late Roman Army. However, I can't remember who records it.

It would be helpful if someone could provide me with a reference to this instance.

Thanks,
MMFA

[Macedon]

That could be Procopius. In his (?) Historia Arcana, ch.24, writing about things during the reign of Justinian. An interesting read, although its historical value can be hotly debated....

Supposedly, the paymasters of the Roman army kept the names of the dead soldiers in the lists, so that others would not be promoted and the difference in the salaries they sent to the emperor.

Another instance of corruption he relates in the beginning of the Vandalic expedition of Belisarius IIRC, where the bread shipped to the troops from Constantinoples was not properly prepared in order to cut expenses and raise profits. As a result, many died, as the bread spoiled before being handed out and the culprit was not punished.

[Michael J. Taylor]

For an overview of the topic you may looks at Ramsey MacMullen Corruption and the Decline of Rome (Yale, 1990). He argues, among other things, that wide scale corruption in military administration reduced the effectiveness of Late Roman units.

[Flavivs Aetivs]

Yes, I remember a friend of mine mentioning that book in an argument we had about leather musculata, in that he argued the Roman units weren't recieving pay or "rations" of metal armor and so the officers gave them leather armor. I told him that concept was unsupportable and pure BS, but that's not why I wanted this reference.

Thanks for the one from Procopius Macedon, it's a little afterwards but still applies.

[Justin I]

I'm not sure if it's the same example Macedon's talking about, but there was an officer named Alexander under Justinian who got the nickname "Snips" because he would snip the edges off the coins and stash those little scraps of precious metals for himself. Reeded coins hadn't yet been invented, apparently.

[Timianus]

I'm not sure if it's the same example Macedon's talking about, but there was an officer named Alexander under Justinian who got the nickname "Snips" because he would snip the edges off the coins and stash those little scraps of precious metals for himself. Reeded coins hadn't yet been invented, apparently.

My favorite is still "Paul The Chain."

[Macedon]

I'm not sure if it's the same example Macedon's talking about, but there was an officer named Alexander under Justinian who got the nickname "Snips" because he would snip the edges off the coins and stash those little scraps of precious metals for himself. Reeded coins hadn't yet been invented, apparently.

Not the same but "Snips" is also mentioned by Procopius in his 7th book, the third of the Gothic Wars.