# A 385 constitution tightens penalties on haruspicy and sacrificial divination without closing every temple that day Date: 385 ## The fact Fordham’s Book XVI selections and Grenoble’s code pages independently show Theodosian constitutions against pagan divination and sacrifice in the 380s. It is one event. ## Context Criminalising divinatory sacrifice is a cult-rights harm heading, continuing earlier emperors’ bans on soothsaying. 391–392 go further on access and private rites. Keep the ladder visible. [Theodosius I](/people/theodosius-i)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death. Book XVI of the later code clusters several Theodosian measures against sacrifice-for-divination before the 391–392 temple-access laws. Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file. ## Evidence and sources Fordham — Codex Theodosianus, selections from Book XVI and Grenoble — Roman law texts including the Theodosian Code independently describe this instrument. Official or archival record: Fordham — Codex Theodosianus, selections from Book XVI (https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/theodcodeXVI.asp; Fordham University / Internet History Sourcebooks). ## Significance The 385 divination law is a rights-harm path of high confidence on the code title, medium on enforcement. ## What is established and what is not Established as a sourced public record of this instrument at the date assigned here. What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions. The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit. Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Theodosius I. They are not a public rating. The driver `protection-of-minority-rights` is attached because the mechanism named in Significance follows from this instrument, not because a standing list of welfare headings needed another tick. Theodosius I did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct. Do not leap from haruspicy to ‘all paganism banned.’ Do not date it 438. Keep the carrier date of later English distinct from the received historical year stored in the date field. Do not read a later English edition as a recovered autograph of Theodosius I. ## People - Theodosius I: https://factrail.ai/people/theodosius-i ## Drivers - Protection of Minority Rights: https://factrail.ai/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights ## Sources - https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/theodcodeXVI.asp - https://droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/ ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/theo-haruspicy-385