[Leo], emperor of [the] Romans; [nicknamed] the Butcher.[1] He seemed to be luckier than all the emperors before him and [to be] frightening to all who lived through his reign and [to any] of the barbarians themselves who had heard of him. At least, this is the reputation[2] he has left behind for the common people. But, as for me, says Malchus,[3] I do not consider it luck, if one strips his subjects of their property, keeps slanderers continually on his payroll to accuse them, makes personal accusations whenever he cannot find someone else [to do it], and stockpiles the gold from all the earth to deposit only for his personal wealth, while causing the cities to be drained of the prosperous abundance which they had before so that they can no longer easily bear the tribute which they used to pay. And, to put it simply, Malchus[4] maintains that he was a lodging-house of every villainy. At any rate [it was he] who also exiled Hyperechius the grammarian, and once too, when he declared that a food stipend be granted to Eulogius the philosopher, one of the eunuchs said that the funds would be appropriately spent on the soldiers, but Leo replied: "I wish it would happen in my lifetime that the [money] of the soldiers be provided to the teachers." In his time Acacius[5] was patriarch [sc. of Constantinople].
See also concerning his expenses under the entry "management."[6]