[1][2][3] When her father married Atia, she became the step-sister of Octavia Minor and Gaius Octavius Thurinus (the future emperor Augustus).

[4] After Cato divorced his first wife Atilia because of rumors about her infidelity, in 63 BC, he married Marcia whom Plutarch described as "a woman of excellent reputation, about whom there was the most abundant talk".

Marcia's second marriage, in the year 56 BC, was to the renowned orator and advocate Quintus Hortalus, whom Cicero styled as "king of the courts".

However, because Porcia was already married to Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus and the age difference was so great, Cato refused to give his consent.

Due to Hortensius' ardor, Cato acquiesced, but only on the condition that Marcia's father, Lucius Marcius Philippus, approve as well.

[5] At the outbreak of Caesar's Civil War in 49 BC, Marcia and her children moved back into Cato's household.

This positive interpretation of Cato's character is reflected in Lucan's Pharsalia and how the Uticans mourned his death.

Julius Caesar on the other hand accused Cato of wife trafficking and marrying Marcia off to Hortensius simply in order to gain his wealth.

Unless it was true that the woman was at the first set as a bait for Hortensius, and lent by Cato when she was young that he might take her back when she was rich."

In her Masters of Rome series of novels, Colleen McCullough suggests that Cato gave Marcia to Hortensius simply because he could not reconcile his passion for her with his Stoic ideals, that he never let her go emotionally, and that he took her back at the first opportunity.

574-578 at LacusCurtius • Book II: The Flight of Pompeius in '"Pharsalia (aka "The Civil War")" by Lucan (Marcus Annaeus Lucanus).