Maternus Cynegius is usually thought to be a native of
Hispania, deduced from the fact that his body was sent there to be buried. He also seems to have belonged to the extended circle of relatives and intimates of the emperor
Theodosius I, who was likewise a Spaniard. All of Cynegius's recorded career shows him holding the highest court rank () and offices under that emperor, which has led scholars to deduce that his connection to Theodosius earned him a quick promotion to these honors. On the other hand, a dedicatory inscription records that Cynegius held all grades of honors in the civil hierarchy, which led historian McLynn to infer that he had some experience under previous emperors, and that it was this which recommended him to Theodosius. Cynegius is first securely attested in the spring of 383 serving as Theodosius's treasurer (). Within a few months, he was appointed to the office of and, shortly afterwards (January 384),
praetorian prefect of the East, with the task of replenishing the undermanned municipal councils () of the eastern provinces, as well as, according to the 6th-century historian
Zosimus, closing pagan temples and suppressing worship of the gods therein. Cynegius's ensuing tour of the east brought him to Egypt, probably in late 386, where he announced at
Alexandria that Theodosius had recognized the military usurper
Maximus as a legitimate emperor. Rewarded by his services with the
consulship in 388, Cynegius died early in the same year, either at
Constantinople or on the return journey there from Egypt. He was interred at the
Church of the Holy Apostles on 19 March 388, but his widow, named Achantia, sent his body to Hispania a year later. Known administrative measures which Cynegius helped implement while in office include laws aimed at filling vacant seats in city councils and punishing the neglection of curial duties by local officials, as well as the building of city walls and other public works at
Antioch. He is also the nominal addressee, and thus probable instigator, of a decree that renewed a prohibition on the pagan practice of
haruspicy, as well as several laws against heretics and Jews. Those in the latter group, in particular, have been said to display a conspicuous 'anti-Jewish tendency contrary to Theodosius's usual policy'. Cynegius has been identified with the high official who received the
Missorium of Theodosius I and was probably depicted on it. A country house found by archaeologists near
Carranque in Spain has been attributed to Cynegius.
Anti-pagan activities and reputation with a cross carved into its forehead. Cynegius was a staunch proponent of the eradication of paganism in the Roman Empire. Maternus Cynegius has received widespread attention and notoriety in scholarship due to evidence that he instigated numerous acts of vandalism against pagan shrines throughout the east. The evidence from ancient sources is listed as follows. • The 6th-century Greek historian
Zosimus, a pagan, blames Cynegius for the systematic closure of temples and suppression of traditional rituals throughout the east while
en route to, and then in, Egypt. A similar story is told by the
Consularia Constantinopolitana, a Latin-language almanac issued at Constantinople. • The
Antiochene rhetor
Libanius, a pagan and contemporary of events, reports a series of outrages committed against pagan shrines in
Syria during Cynegius's term of office, and specifically denounces an unnamed official (usually identified as Cynegius himself) who, at his wife's instigation, destroyed a temple in
Osroene (likely at
Carrhae or perhaps
Edessa) without the emperor's permission. • The 5th-century ecclesiastical historian
Theodoret reports an unidentified eastern governor's attempt to demolish a temple of Zeus at
Apameia, Syria, with the aid of the local bishop,
Marcellus. Zosimus's explicit mention of Cynegius and the contemporary actions reported by Libanius and Theodoret have led many authors, like
Otto Seeck,
John Matthews and those of the
Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, to attribute the main responsibility for the disturbances to Cynegius. Paul Petit, following Libanius, portrays Cynegius as encouraging bands of monks to destroy rural shrines across the east, coordinating operations while based at Antioch in 385–386, though Petit identifies the vandal of Theodoret as a different, lower ranking official instead. In 1982, Polish archeologist Barbara Gassowska tentatively ascribed the demise of the
temple of Al-Lat in
Palmyra to Cynegius. Olszaniec takes for granted that Cynegius was the official described by Libanius and that he was acting at the behest of emperor Theodosius. In 2005, Neil McLynn cast doubt on Cynegius's reputation as a destroyer of temples, arguing that the accounts of Zosimus, Libanius and Theodoret are too disparate or unreliable for them to be securely conflated into a single narrative. McLynn takes Theodoret's anecdote to be highly rhetorical and unreliable, and also believes that Libanius's narrative is inconsistent with the zealot official, who is never explicitly named, being Cynegius or any other of such high rank. Furthermore, whereas Libanius has his unnamed subject destroy shrines throughout Syria, Zosimus reports that Cynegius merely closed temples, and that his actions climaxed instead at Alexandria, Egypt. McLynn gives reasons to believe that Zosimus's account, along with the similar notice in the Latin almanac titled
Consularia Constantinopolitana (which was probably Zosimus's own source), overstate Cynegius's role, which in the end may have been very minor or even symbolic. McLynn's conclusions have been endorsed or at least positively acknowledged by a number of scholars. ==Family==