[7][8] Historian Brent Shaw states that her legend emphasized her virginity and commitment to asceticism, and contained "a new kind of hostility that was added to the old story of Christian-pagan hatreds".

She traveled to Caesarea, Mauretania (modern-day Algeria) and took up residence in a cave in order to preserve her virginity (for she was said to be very beautiful) and consecrated herself to God through various exercises in fasts and other practices of self-deprivation that were used in lieu of martyrdom.

[3] While walking in the public square, Marciana attacked a statue of the Roman goddess Diana, tearing the head off and smashing the body to pieces.

[14] Shaw states that Marciana's story demonstrates the conflict between the Christian and Jewish communities in Caesarea during the period and was part of the "long and well-developed” anti-Jewish literature of the time.

[15] Shaw cautions, however, that narratives like this, that directly include Jews in the persecution of Christians in Africa during the 4th and 5th centuries, were "exceedingly rare".