MARCIAN (Marcianus), emperor of the East from 450 to 457, was born in a private station of life in Illyria or Thrace, about the year 391, and at an early age entered the army, where after a considerable term of obscurity he attracted the attention of Ardaburius and subsequently of Aspar, being made military secretary and a captain in the guards. He accompanied Aspar in the ill-fated expedition against Genseric, by whom he was taken prisoner, but soon released. In 450, having in the meantime become tribune and senator, he went through the form of marriage with Pulcheria, the sister and successor of Theodosius II., and was crowned on August 25. In 451 he assembled the oecumenical council of Chalcedon, at which the proceedings of the “robber-synod” of Ephesus were annulled, and the Eutychian heresy condemned, a service to orthodoxy which has greatly endeared his memory to the minds of Catholic historians. In 452 his generals Ardaburius and Maximin respectively gained victories of some importance over the Arabs near Damascus and over the Blemmyes who had invaded the Thebaid; and after the death of Attila (453) he set about the task of repopulating the extensive tracts which had been devastated by the Huns. He maintained the peace of his dominions during the troubles which convulsed the Western empire in 455; and in 456 his arms were free to repress disturbances in Lazica which had been fomented by the Armenians and Persians. He died in 457, and was succeeded by Leo I.