Placuit omnibus locis atque urbibus universis claudi protinus templa, et accessu vetitis omnibus licentiam
delinquendi perditis abnegari. Volumus etiam cunctos a
sacrificiis abstinere. Quod siquis aliquid forte hujusmodi
perpetraverit, gladio [ultore] sternatur: facultates etiam
perempti fisco decernimus vindicari: et similiter adfligi
rectores provinciarum si facinora vindicare neglexerint.
Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 4
Chronology has discovered some contradiction in the date of this extravagant law; the only one, perhaps, by which the negligence of magistrates is punished by death and confiscation. M. de la Bastie (Mem. de l'Acedemie, tom. xv. p. 98) conjectures, with a show of reason, that this was no more than the minutes of a law, the heads of an intended bill, which were found in Scriniis Memoriae, among the papers of Constantius, and afterwards inserted, as a worthy model, in the Theodosian Code.