MARCIA CATOUN. Marcia, daughter of Marcius Philippus, was the wife of Cato Uticensis, for whom she bore three children, one of whom was Porcia, who became Brutus's wife. Cato divorced her so that he could marry her to his friend Quintus Hortensius, who wanted her to bear him children and so cement his friendship with Cato. He died several years later, and Marcia begged Cato to make her his wife again. They were remarried but remained wedded in name only (Lucan, Pharsalia II.326-349). Dante gives the story allegorical interpretation: Marcia is a symbol of the noble soul returning to God at the beginnng of old age (Convivio IV.xxviii.14-19).
Marcia is a faithful wife, LGW F 252, LGW G 206. T.R. Lounsbury suggests that Chaucer means Marcia, daughter of Cato Uticensis, who appears in Jerome's Epistola adversus Jovinianum (Letter Against Jovinian) I.46 (PL 23: 275). [Catoun2]
Marcia, feminine of Marcius, the name of the Roman clan to which the family belonged, appears in final rhyming position.