# CTh 16.10.10 of 24 February 391 forbids sacrifice and access to temples in a western address, not an overnight abolition of all paganism

Date: 391

## The fact

Fordham and Early Church Texts independently print the 391 temple-access constitution from Book XVI.

It is one event.

## Context

Banning sacrifice and temple-going is a cult-rights harm heading, stepwise with 385 and 392. Officials, not every villager, are the first addressees. Mixed survival of pagan office-holders remains in modern scholarship.

[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.

Addressed to the urban prefect of Rome. ‘No one shall pollute himself with sacrificial animals… approach the shrines.’ 8 November 392 extends to private rites. Serapeum destruction is a local Christian-mob episode not stored as his signed demolition order. Constantine’s earlier cult laws are prior influence, not this text.

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 Early Church Texts — Codex Theodosianus extracts 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

16.10.10 is a rights-harm path of high confidence on the compiled wording, medium on street-level 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 store Serapeum as his autograph. Do not collapse 391 and 392. 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://earlychurchtexts.com/public/codex_theodosianus.htm
- https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/theodcodeXVI.asp

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

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