MARCIAN, Emperor of the East. — Born perhaps in Thrace ca. 390, of humble origins, he made his way, as was then customary, into the military, and his singular fortune gave rise to a host of tales, predictions, dreams, and prodigies.
Even Gaiseric, King of the Vandals, of whom he had fallen prisoner, is said to have released him after having received a revelation of his brilliant future. The truth is that he won the esteem of the powerful magister militum Flavius Ardabur and his son Aspar, and was close to them not only on the battlefield but also at the court in Constantinople, where the need for a strong personality was keenly felt. Indeed, the prestige of the memory of Theodosius I had allowed Ravenna and Constantinople to tolerate two feeble figures of his descendants, for whom two women had effectively governed: Galla Placidia, mother of Valentinian III, in Ravenna, and Pulcheria, sister of Theodosius II, in Constantinople. When Theodosius II died in 450, Pulcheria, knowing she could not remain alone at the head of the state, chose as her spouse Marcian, on the condition that he respect her vow of virginity. Aspar, who was a barbarian, would not have been easily tolerated on the throne of Rome, whereas Marcian at least had been born within the boundaries of the Empire.
Marcian immediately gave signs of those characteristics that would define his reign: a lofty sense of the dignity of the Empire and steadfast Christian faith. He notified Attila, King of the Huns, that the Empire no longer intended to pay the tribute that Theodosius II had agreed to, and he respectfully communicated his own election to Pope Leo I. Though he lived amidst arms, he declared that he wished, as far as possible, to preserve peace, and he adhered to this policy, even though he had marched against the Huns to relieve pressure on the western regions of the Empire and had defended the frontiers of the provinces of Syria and Egypt against the Saracens and the Blemmyes of Nubia. The suspension of the tribute to the Huns allowed for a reduction in the extraordinarily heavy taxes of the age. Relations with the western portion of the Empire were, as usual, not entirely cordial, partly due to the petty Augustuses of the West, and partly because Marcian sought to assert a primacy in the defense of the Empire, a claim justified by the catastrophe of the sack of Rome by Gaiseric.
Toward the Church of Rome, Marcian was most respectful, as indeed the most pious woman who had summoned him to the Empire desired, and as was declared by the epithets with which he is hailed: *Christianissimus Imperator*, *Studiosissimus ecclesiasticae pacis*, *Custos fidei*. He wished, in fact, to repair the violence of the Council of Ephesus (q.v.) of 449 (the *latrocinium Ephesinum*, as Pope Leo I called it) by convening the Council of Chalcedon (q.v.), in which the Monophysite heresy of Eutyches was condemned, and the dogmatic directives sent by Pope Leo I to the Patriarch of Constantinople Flavian (*Tomus Leonis*) received full recognition. Yet in Palestine and Egypt, the decisions taken against Eutyches provoked violent opposition.