"Mention is also made of the confidence of Asterius, a man of senatorial rank, in great favour with the emperors, and well known for his nobility and wealth. As he was present at the death of the above-mentioned martyr, taking up the corpse, he bore it on his shoulder in a splendid and costly dress, and covering it in a magnificent manner, gave it a decent burial."
Asterius is venerated by the Greeks on August 7th as a martyr, who suffered decollation, and Marinus is not mentioned by them. Eusebius says nothing of the martyrdom of Asterius, as he certainly would have done, had he died for Christ, for he says, "Many other facts are stated of this man by his friends, who are alive at present," and then he relates his counteracting by his prayers the drowning of a victim annually offered to the river Jordan. The Roman Martyrology, however, accepts the Greek tradition. "Asterius received the honour he rendered to the martyr, becoming himself a martyr;" but perhaps the word martyr is here to be taken in the sense frequently given to it anciently, of a confessor, or witness to Christ, not necessarily by losing his life for his testimony, but only by imperilling it.
[Commemorated in the Mozarabic Missal and Breviary; the Evora and Toledo Breviaries, and as a double at Burgos and Leon; Martyrology of S. Jerome, those of Usuardus, Ado, Notker, and the Roman Martyrology. Authority:--A hymn of Prudentius, and Acts of no great antiquity, printed by Tamayus Salazar, and an Elogium by Gregory of Tours.]
These martyrs were put to death with the sword at Calahorra, in Navarre, on the Ebro. According to the hymn of Prudentius, and the story of Gregory of Tours, on their execution, the ring of one martyr, and the stole (orarium) of the other, were caught up in a cloud, and ascended into Heaven. Probably this legend contains a reminiscence of an incident such as the wind wafting away some of the martyrs' garments during the execution.
SS. BASILISCUS, EUTROPIUS, AND CLEONICUS, MM.
[By the Greeks on this day, but S. Basiliscus alone on May 22nd. Menologium of the Emperor Basil, Modern Roman Martyrology. Tamayus Salazar, trusting to the forged Flavius Dexter, claims them to be Spanish martyrs. This is a common trick of some Spanish hagiologists, who have appropriated all martyrs that are not, in Martyrologies, given a place of martyrdom, and the pseudo-Dexter simply mentioned these saints without saying that they were of Amasea and Comana; therefore Salazar audaciously says, "In Caspetana (Sierra di Guadalupe) in Spain, SS. Felix, Luciolus, ... Cleontius, Eutropius, Basiliscus, who, in the persecution of Maximian, under Asclepiades, the Governor, endured torments, and the cross itself, and as martyrs ascended to Heaven." The forger of Flavius Dexter took the names from the modern Roman Martyrology, where the name of the place of martyrdom is not mentioned, and set them down as martyrs in some unknown city of Spain; Salazar improved on the Pseudo-Dexter by planting them in the Sierra di Guadalupe. The life of S. Basiliscus, if genuine, is by Eusignius, who knew the martyr, and was himself, probably, a martyr in the persecution afterwards, and is commemorated on August 5th. In the life are many passages which show that Eusignius was well acquainted with the facts he describes, such as "Christ accompanied His martyr, as Basiliscus afterwards told me, Eusignius." He was eye-witness of the events; he says, "As we approached the city, we heard, &c., ... we tasted ... and when we went in, we heard, ... we, to whom it was granted to see this terrible mystery ... we asked the speculator, and gave him thirty gold pieces, and he gave us the body, and we buried it, and we sowed vegetables ... and we went to rest." The Acts, if they are genuine, and not an impudent forgery, have undergone much interpolation. Some of these additions are apparent from a change of the "we" to "they" in the account of the journey to Comana.]