What is "prisca"

Prisca (died 315) was the Empress of Rome (286–305) and wife of Emperor Diocletian. Nothing is known of her family background. Although she was a Christian or favorably disposed to Christianity, she was forced to sacrifice to the gods during the Great Persecution of 303.

When Diocletian retired to Spalatum in 305, Prisca stayed with her daughter, Galeria Valeria and son-in-law, Galerius in Thessalonica. When Galerius died in 311, Licinius was entrusted with the care of Prisca and her daughter Valeria. The two women, however, fled from Licinius to Maximinus Daia. After a short time, Valeria refused the marriage proposal of Maximinus, who arrested and confined her in Syria and confiscated her properties. At the death of Maximinus, Licinius had Prisca and her daughter killed.

Prisca, often written in the diminutive form Priscilla, was a 2nd-century C.E. foundational leader and prophet of the religious movement known today as Montanism based in the Phrygian towns of Pepuza and Tymion. She, along with the prophets Montanus and Maximilla, proselytized a form of Christianity in which the Holy Spirit would enter the human body and speak through it.

With the exception of Tertullian, all historical information concerning her life, as well as the movement of which she was inextricably entwined, comes from extremely hostile sources written more than a century after her death. Catholic writers in the 4th century condemned Montanism as a heresy and its female leaders as seductresses.

No information exists concerning her life before her entrance into the movement. In joining the sect she was said to have abandoned her husband. Though the 4th century polemicists portrayed Montanus as the head of the sect, modern scholars debate the extent to which the three prophets shared power. In Epiphanius of Salamis’ Panarion, he subdivided adherents of the New Prophecy into many smaller categories, one of which was Priscillianists. Epiphanius defined a Priscillianist as having particular reverence for Priscilla as a spiritual leader but treated it and Montanism as interchangeable labels. In the early 3rd century, Priscilla likely took over leadership with Quintilla after the deaths of Montanus and Maximilla.