# The Serapeum of Alexandria is destroyed in 391 under Theodosian anti-pagan enforcement

Date: 391

## The fact

In 391 the Serapeum of Alexandria was destroyed amid enforcement of Theodosius’s anti-pagan measures. The instrument is that cult-site destruction, neighbouring CTh temple bans without treating the ban text as the same row.

It is one event.

## Context

Law and riotous enforcement split. Britannica and DIR independently narrate the Serapeum’s end in the Theodosian moment. Local actors share agency.

[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.

Conventional years are 347–395. Surviving public files are the Theodosian Code (438 compilation as evidence), chronicles, Ambrose letters, and encyclopedias. Theodosius did not typeset Fordham.

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

Britannica and De Imperatoribus Romanis independently describe the Serapeum’s destruction in 391 under Theodosian policy.

Official or archival record: Britannica — Theodosius I (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodosius-I; Encyclopaedia Britannica).

## Significance

[Protection-of-minority-rights](/drivers/protection-of-minority-rights) cost path. High confidence on the destruction in 391.

## What is established and what is not

Established: the Serapeum was destroyed in 391 in this enforcement climate. Not established: that Theodosius swung the first axe in person.

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. Serapeum is not only CTh 16.10.10’s ban text. Keep Alexandria off the February 391 law row as a pure duplicate. 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://roman-emperors.sites.luc.edu/theo1.htm
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodosius-I

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/theo-serapeum-391