As little is said by the Antients of _Caius_ as is said of his Predecessor. A few Days after the Death of _Eutychianus_, _Caius_ was chosen to succeed him, _Carus_ and _Carinus_ being Consuls[492]. [Sidenote: Caius _not a Martyr, tho’ honoured as a Martyr_.] He presided Twelve Years, Four Months, and Seven Days; that is, from the 17th of _December_ 283. to the 22d of _April_ 296. _Caius_ too is counted by the Church of _Rome_ among her Martyrs, upon the Authority of _Bede_, and of the Acts of St. _Susanna_, by which that Writer seems to have been misled. In those Acts _Caius_ is said to have suffered with _Susanna_ his Niece, and many others, under _Numerian_: but that Prince in his Father’s Life-time had no great Power, being only _Cæsar_, and very young, and was killed on his March out of _Persia_ soon after his Father’s Death; so that he never reigned in the West, and but a very short time in the East. _Caius_ therefore could not suffer under him at _Rome_, where his elder Brother _Carinus_ governed. But the Vulgar have a particular Veneration for Martyrs, and, what turns to a very good Account, are glad to purchase their Reliques at any rate. [Sidenote: _The Church of_ Rome _why so fond of Martyrs_.] The Church of _Rome_ therefore, to provide herself with great Store of them, has multiplied beyond Belief the Number of her Martyrs; which she could not well do without multiplying at the same time the Number of the Persecutors of the Christian Religion. And hence it is that several Princes, who never molested, nay, who greatly favoured the Christians, have been by the Church of _Rome_ transformed in her Martyrologies and Legends into Persecutors. As for the Acts of the supposed St. _Susanna_, they are full of Mistakes and Absurdities, and contradict the best Historians of those Times. ----- Footnote 492: Idem ib. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DIOCLESIAN, MARCELLINUS, CONSTANTIUS, MAXIMIAN, _Twenty-eighth_ BISHOP _of_ GALERIUS. Rome. [Sidenote: Year of Christ 296. Marcellinus _unjustly aspersed by the Church of_ Rome.]