1. Maternus Cynegius was a Roman bureaucrat and close confidant of the emperor Theodosius I He held the offices of praetorian prefect of the East and consul, and has been widely blamed by historians for instigating the widespread destruction of pagan temples and shrines throughout the eastern Roman provinces.
Maternus Cynegius is usually thought to be a native of Hispania, deduced from the fact that his body was sent there to be buried.
Maternus Cynegius seems to have belonged to the extended circle of relatives and intimates of the emperor Theodosius I, who was likewise a Spaniard.
Maternus Cynegius is first securely attested in the spring of 383 serving as Theodosius's treasurer.
Maternus 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.
Maternus Cynegius is 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.
Maternus Cynegius has been identified with the high official who received the Missorium of Theodosius I and was probably depicted on it.
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.
Olszaniec takes for granted that Maternus Cynegius was the official described by Libanius and that he was acting at the behest of emperor Theodosius.
Furthermore, whereas Libanius has his unnamed subject destroy shrines throughout Syria, Zosimus reports that Maternus Cynegius merely closed temples, and that his actions climaxed instead at Alexandria, Egypt.
Maternus Cynegius was probably related to Aemilius Florus Paternus, governor of Africa in 393, who had a son called Cynegius, as well as with Aemilia Materna Thermantia, grandniece of the emperor Theodosius and wife of Honorius.