AD 391

Theodosian decrees

Theodosian laws restrict sacrifice and temple worship in Rome and Egypt

A Roman judge caught entering a temple to worship owed fifteen pounds of gold — and his own staff owed the same unless they opposed him and reported him publicly.

Two laws, February and June 391

No surviving decree of 391 announces that Christianity is now the official religion. What survives is a pair of constitutions issued months apart: one at Milan on 24 February, the other at Aquileia on 16 June.

The February text, preserved as Codex Theodosianus 16.10.10, prohibited sacrifice, entering temples for worship, and venerating cult statues. The June text, 16.10.11, repeated the ban and was addressed to Evagrius, Augustal prefect, and Romanus, count of Egypt.

The fines landed on officeholders

The February law disciplined officials in particular. A judge who entered a temple to worship owed fifteen Roman pounds of gold; his staff owed an equal amount unless they had opposed him and reported him publicly.

Consular officials faced six pounds and correctors or provincial governors four, with corresponding fines for their own staffs.

That law was directed to Albinus. The code's heading calls him praetorian prefect, but he was Rome's urban prefect — which makes Rome and the suburbicarian provinces the best-supported immediate jurisdiction.

No order to pull the temples down

Neither 391 law ordered temple buildings across the empire closed or destroyed. Both prohibited ritual access and sacrifice within specified administrative contexts.

The comprehensive prohibition that reached into private households — incense, lamps, wreaths, libations — is a separate constitution, 16.10.12, dated 8 November 392.

Legislation in 399 still ordered some emptied temple buildings preserved.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The event is a year-long legislative development, not one act on one date: the principal surviving laws are dated 24 February and 16 June 391.
The heading’s description of Albinus as praetorian prefect is erroneous; his actual office affects assessments of the February law’s geographical scope.
The Theodosian Code was compiled decades later. Its transmitted headings and grouping should not be treated as a contemporary narrative of enforcement.
The end of the Vestal order and extinguishing of Vesta’s flame are generally placed in the early 390s, often 394, but they are not commanded or dated by either 391 law.