He held the offices of praetorian prefect of the East (384–388) and consul (388), and has been widely blamed by historians for instigating the widespread destruction of pagan temples and shrines throughout the eastern Roman provinces.

[3] All of Cynegius's recorded career shows him holding the highest court rank (illustris) and offices under that emperor,[4] which has led scholars to deduce that his connection to Theodosius earned him a quick promotion to these honors.

[5] 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.

Within a few months, he was appointed to the office of quaestor sacri palatii and, shortly afterwards (January 384), praetorian prefect of the East, with the task of replenishing the undermanned municipal councils (curiae) of the eastern provinces, as well as, according to the 6th-century historian Zosimus, closing pagan temples and suppressing worship of the gods therein.

[20] 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.

[26] He was also 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.