MARCIA. - Favourite of the emperor Commodo from 183 onward, after having been the concubine of Ummidio Quadrato, nephew of Marco Aurelio. Dione Cassio (Historia romana, LXXII, 4) wrote: “It is related of M. that she had a lively sympathy for the Christians and did them much good, being all-powerful over the mind of Commodo.”
This testimony is confirmed by the Philosophumena of Ippolito (9, 12), which recount an act of benevolence by M. on behalf of the Christians of Rome condemned to forced labour in Sardinia because of their faith, whom she had set free by order of Commodo.
The event, related by a contemporary, reveals M.’s attitude towards the Christians. From this it has been sought to conclude that she was a Christian, but Dione Cassio merely alludes to her sympathy for the Christians, and Ippolito calls her “a lover of God,” thus indicating that she protected Christians, just as Poppea, Nero’s favourite, protected the Jews (cf. Giuseppe Flavio, Antiq. Ind., XX, 8, 2). The education she received from Giacinto, certainly a Christian and perhaps a priest, while inspiring her with a strong attraction to the Christian religion, had not given her the courage to practise its commandments. There can be no doubt that M. openly protected Christians and succeeded in considerably limiting the persecution against them, so that Eusebio (Hist. eccl., V, 21) could write that under Commodo the Church enjoyed peace and tranquillity and that, especially in Rome, Christianity was able to spread even among the upper social classes.