Ce Acatl Topiltzin

Who is Ce Acatl Topiltzin?

Cē Ācatl Topiltzin is a mythologised figure appearing in 16th-century accounts of Nahua historical traditions, where he is identified as a ruler in the 10th century of the Toltecs—by Aztec tradition their predecessors who had political control of the Valley of Mexico and surrounding region several centuries before the Aztecs themselves arrived on the scene.

In later generations, he was a figure of legend often confused or conflated with the important Mesoamerican deity Quetzalcoatl. One estimate puts the years of his reign from 923 to 947, although the correlation between dates of Toltec history and the Gregorian calendar remain uncertain, as does the very nature of a defined "Toltec civilization" itself. According to legend in El Salvador, the city of Cuzcatlán was founded by the exiled Toltec Ce Acatl Topiltzin.