AD 393

Anti-pagan legislation of Theodosius I

Claimed 393 temple-destruction order of Theodosius I (unattested)

The alleged order disappears when the laws are read in sequence: 391 regulates temple worship, 392 reaches household gods, and the next relevant constitution is from 395.

The year with no law in it

No surviving law and no securely attested event from 393 orders the empire-wide destruction of pagan temples, sacred sites, statues or antiquities.

The Theodosian Code was compiled decades later and preserves edited legal constitutions rather than a continuous record of enforcement. Scholars also dispute how universally individual constitutions circulated, and how closely conduct on the ground followed the legal language.

Localised temple attacks did occur, but they do not establish a single centrally directed campaign throughout the empire in 393.

What 391 and 392 actually said

On 24 February 391, a law addressed to Albinus forbade sacrifice and entering temples for pagan worship. It penalised worshippers and negligent officials; it did not command demolition of the buildings.

On 16 June 391, a separate constitution addressed to officials in Egypt prohibited sacrifice and temple worship there — again a cult restriction. On 8 November 392, Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius prohibited animal sacrifice and domestic rites involving the Lares, the household Genius, the Penates, incense, lamps and garlands, prescribing fines and confiscation.

Restricting or closing worship is not synonymous with demolishing a structure.

The demolition law belongs to 435

The surviving law that explicitly orders remaining sanctuaries and temples destroyed and marked with the Christian sign is Codex Theodosianus 16.10.25, dated 14 November 435 — issued under Theodosius II and Valentinian III, four decades later.

Maternus Cynegius, praetorian prefect of the East from 384 to 388, is associated by literary sources with anti-temple activity, but recent scholarship rejects the claim that Theodosius sent him to Alexandria to close the temples there.

Sofie Remijsen finds the supposed Theodosian ban on the Olympic Games, and the traditional 393 end date for them, unfounded.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

The Theodosian Code was compiled decades later and preserves edited legal constitutions rather than a continuous narrative of enforcement.
Scholars dispute how universally individual constitutions circulated and how closely conduct on the ground followed the legal language.
Localized temple attacks occurred, but they do not establish a single, centrally directed 393 campaign throughout the empire.