This is one of the earliest references to the preservation of relics.  So late as the case of St. Fructuosus (Acta SS. Fructuosi, etc.), who died at Tarragona in 259, the friends are forbidden to keep the relics.  On St. Basil’s views on the subject, cf. Hom. in Mart. Jul. 2 and Hom. de SS. xl. MM. 8.  So Gregory of Nyssa, Hom. i. in xl. Mar. ii. 935.  As early as the time of St. Augustine (†430) a thriving trade in forged relics had already begun.  (Aug., De Opere Monach. 28.)  cf. Littledale’s Plain Reasons, p. 51.