The gens Ulpia was a Roman family that rose to prominence during the first century AD. The gens is best known from the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, who reigned from AD 98 to 117. The Thirtieth Legion took its name, ''Ulpia'', in his honor. The city of

Serdica Serdika or Serdica ( Bulgarian: ) is the historical Roman name of Sofia, now the capital of Bulgaria. Currently, Serdika is the name of a district located in the city. It includes four neighbourhoods: "Fondovi zhilishta"; "Banishora", "Orlandov ...

, modern day

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, was renamed as Ulpia Serdica.

Origin

The Ulpii were from

Umbria it, Umbro (man) it, Umbra (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , ...

. Little is known of them except that they were connected with a family of the Aelii from Picenum. The name ''Ulpius'' may be derived from an Umbrian cognate of the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''lupus'', meaning "wolf"; perhaps related to ''vulpes'', Latin for "fox". The most illustrious members of this gens were the Ulpii Trajani, whom according to a biographer of Trajan, came from the city of Tuder, in southern Umbria; there is evidence of a family of this name there. Members of this family were colonists of Italica in

Roman Spain Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania ...

, where Trajan was born. They were related to a family of the Aelii, which had evidently come from Atria; Trajan's aunt was the grandmother of Hadrian, who was likewise born at Italica.Syme, ''Tacitus'', p. 792 ''ff.''

Members

Ulpii Trajani

* Marcus Ulpius Trajanus, father of the emperor Trajan, was consul ''suffectus'' in AD 72. * Ulpia, perhaps the same person as Ulpia M. f. Plotina, was the aunt of Trajan. She married Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus, and was the grandmother of the emperor Hadrian. * Marcus Ulpius M. f. Trajanus, consul in AD 91; he was subsequently adopted by the emperor Nerva, and was himself emperor from AD 98 to 117. * Ulpia M. f. Marciana, the sister of Trajan, married Gaius Salonius Matidius Patruinus.

Ulpii Marcelli

Ulpius Marcellus Ulpius Marcellus was a Roman consular governor of Britannia who returned there as general of the later 2nd century. Ulpius Marcellus is recorded as governor of Roman Britain in an inscription of 176–80, and apparently returned to Rome after a te ...

, a jurist during the reigns of

Antoninus Pius Antoninus Pius ( Latin: ''Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius''; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatori ...

and

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...

. *

, perhaps a son of the jurist, governor of

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...

during the reign of Commodus. *

, probably the same person as the governor of Britannia, although uncertainties of chronology have led some scholars to believe he had a son of the same name.

Others

* Ulpia Plotina, the wife of Titus Calestrius Ampliatus. * Ulpius Julianus, praetorian prefect under the emperor

Macrinus Marcus Opellius Macrinus (; – June 218) was Roman emperor from April 217 to June 218, reigning jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. As a member of the equestrian class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senatori ...

, he was sent to put down the rebellion of

Elagabalus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 11/12 March 222), better known by his nickname "Elagabalus" (, ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for s ...

, but was slain by his own troops, in AD 218. *

Marcus Ulpius Leurus Marcus Ulpius Leurus was a Roman senator, who was active during the reign of Septimus Severus and Caracalla. Life He was suffect consul in some undetermined '' nundinium'' in their reigns.Paul M. M. Leunissen, ''Konsuln und Konsulare in der Zeit ...

, a native of

Hypata Ypati ( el, Υπάτη) is a village and a former municipality in Phthiotis, central peninsular Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality of Lamia, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an a ...

, and consul ''suffectus'' during later second century. * Ulpia Gordiana, mother of the emperor Gordian I, according to the '' Augustan History''. *

Marcus Ulpius Eubiotus Leurus Marcus Ulpius Eubiotus Leurus was a Roman senator, who was active during the first part of the third century. Life He was suffect consul in one of the '' nundinia'' around the year 230. He is known entirely from inscriptions. He was the son of ...

, son of the consul Leurus, was consul ''suffectus'' in an uncertain year around AD 230. * Marcus Ulpius M. f. Flavius Tisamenus, elder son of the consul Eubiotus Leurus.Oliver, "The Sacred Gerusia", pp. 130, 131. * Marcus Ulpius M. f. Pupienus Maximus, younger son of the consul Eubiotus Leurus. * Ulpius Crinitus, according to Vopiscus, a successful general in the time of Valerian, who claimed to be a descendant of the house of Trajan. He adopted Lucius Domitius Aurelianus, the future emperor Aurelian, alongside whom he was appointed consul ''suffectus'' in AD 257. Modern historians suspect that he was an invention of the author, but if he existed, he may have been the father of the empress Ulpia Severina. * Gaius Ulpius Cornelius Laelianus, one of the " Thirty Tyrants", he rebelled against

Postumus Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman commander of Batavian origin, who ruled as Emperor of the splinter state of the Roman Empire known to modern historians as the Gallic Empire. The Roman army in Gaul threw off its allegiance to Ga ...

and proclaimed himself emperor in AD 269, during the reign of

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...

, but was slain at Moguntiacum about two months later. *

Ulpia Severina Ulpia Severina was Roman empress as the wife of Roman emperor Aurelian from 270 to 275. Severina is unmentioned in surviving literary sources and known only from coinage and inscriptions and as a result, very little is known about her. Her Ulpia ...

, the wife of Aurelian, and Roman empress from AD 271 to 275. * Marcus Ulpius Pupienus Silvanus, a senator mentioned in an inscription from Surrentum in

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

, dating between the late third and mid-fourth century; from his name perhaps a descendant of the consul Marcus Ulpius Leurus..

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ( Pliny the Younger), ''Panegyricus Trajani'' (Panegyric on Trajan). * Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

), ''Roman History''. *

Herodian Herodian or Herodianus ( el, Ἡρωδιανός) of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch" (c. 170 – c. 240), was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled ''History of the Empire from the Death o ...

us, ''History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus''. * Aelius Lampridius, Aelius Spartianus, Flavius Vopiscus, Julius Capitolinus, Trebellius Pollio, and Vulcatius Gallicanus, ''Historia Augusta'' ( Augustan History). * Eutropius, ''Breviarium Historiae Romanae'' (Abridgement of the History of Rome). *

Sextus Aurelius Victor Sextus Aurelius Victor (c. 320 – c. 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a short history of imperial Rome, entitled ''De Caesaribus'' and covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. The work w ...

, ''De Caesaribus'' (On the Caesars), '' Epitome de Caesaribus'' (attributed). *

Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont (30 November 163710 January 1698) was a French ecclesiastical historian. Life He was born in Paris into a wealthy Jansenist family, and was educated at the ''Petites écoles'' of Port-Royal, where his histori ...

, ''Histoire des Empereurs et des Autres Princes qui ont Régné Durant les Six Premiers Siècles de l’Église'' (History of the Emperors and Other Princes who Ruled During the First Six Centuries of the Church), Chez Rollin Fils, Paris (1690-1697, 1701, 1738). *

Joseph Hilarius Eckhel Joseph Hilarius Eckhel (13 January 1737 – 16 May 1798) was an Austrian Jesuit priest and numismatist. Biography Eckhel was born at Enzersfeld, in Lower Austria. His father was farm-steward to Count Zinzendorf, and he received his early educ ...

, ''Doctrina Numorum Veterum'' (The Study of Ancient Coins, 1792–1798). * ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 ...

'', William Smith, ed., Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1849). * James H. Oliver
"The Sacred Gerusia"
in ''Hesperia Supplements'', No. 6 (1941). *

Ronald Syme Sir Ronald Syme, (11 March 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a New Zealand-born historian and classicist. He was regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome since Theodor Mommsen and the most brilliant exponent of the history of the Roman ...

, ''Tacitus'', Clarendon Press, Oxford (1958). * Paul A. Gallivan, "The ''Fasti'' for A.D. 70–96", in '' Classical Quarterly'', vol. 31, pp. 186–220 (1981). * Paul M. M. Leunissen, ''Konsuln und Konsulare in der Zeit von Commodus bis Severus Alexander'', J.C. Gieben, Amsterdam (1989). * Julian Bennett, ''Trajan: Optimus Princeps'', Routledge, (1997). * Daniël den Hengst, ''Emperors and Historiography: Collected Essays on the Literature of the Roman Empire by Daniël den Hengst'', Brill, Leiden (2010). {{Refend Roman gentes