Ulpia (gens)
Encyclopedia
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
family, which rose to prominence during the 1st century AD The gens
Gens
In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
is best known from the emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajanus
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
, who reigned from AD 98 to 117. The Thirtieth Legion
Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix
Legio trigesima Ulpia Victrix was a Roman legion levied by the Emperor Trajan in 100 for the Dacian Wars. The legion was active until disbandment of the Rhine frontier in the beginning of the 5th century. Their emblems were the gods Neptune and Jupiter and the Capricorn...
took its name, Ulpia, in his honor.
Origin of the gens
The ancestors of the Ulpii were Roman colonists in HispaniaHispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
. Little is known of them, except that they were connected with a family of the Aelii
Aelia (gens)
The gens Aelia, occasionally written Ailia, was a plebeian family at Rome, which flourished from the 5th century BC until at least the 3rd century AD, a period of nearly eight hundred years. The archaic spelling Ailia is found on coins, but must not be confused with Allia, which seems to be a...
who had also settled in Hispania; Trajan's aunt was the grandmother of the emperor Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
.
Members of the gens
- Marcus Ulpius TrajanusMarcus Ulpius Traianus (senator)Marcus Ulpius Traianus Maior was a Roman senator who lived in the 1st century. He was father of the Roman Emperor Trajan.-Family:...
, consul suffectus circa AD 70, father of the emperor Trajan. - UlpiaUlpia (grandmother of Hadrian)Ulpia was a noble Spanish Roman woman who lived in the Roman Empire during the 1st century CE. Ulpia was a member of the gens Ulpia....
, aunt of Trajan, married Aelius MarullinusAelius Hadrianus MarullinusPublius Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus , also known as Aelius Hadrianus Marullinus or Aelius Marullinus was a Spanish Roman Senator of Praetorian rank that lived during the Roman Empire in the 1st century....
, and was the grandmother of the emperor HadrianHadrianHadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
. - Marcus Ulpius M. f. TrajanusTrajanTrajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
, consul in AD 91; he was subsequently adopted by the emperor NervaNervaNerva , was Roman Emperor from 96 to 98. Nerva became Emperor at the age of sixty-five, after a lifetime of imperial service under Nero and the rulers of the Flavian dynasty. Under Nero, he was a member of the imperial entourage and played a vital part in exposing the Pisonian conspiracy of 65...
, and was himself emperor from AD 98 to 117. - Ulpia M. f. MarcianaUlpia MarcianaUlpia Marciana was the beloved elder sister of Roman Emperor Trajan. She was the eldest child born to Roman woman Marcia and the Spanish Roman senator Marcus Ulpius Traianus. Her second name Marciana she inherited from her mother’s paternal ancestors. Her birthplace is unknown.Marciana married...
, the sister of Trajan, married Gaius Salonius Matidius PatruinusGaius Salonius Matidius PatruinusGaius Saloninus Matidius Patruinus was a Roman Senator that lived in the Roman Empire during the 1st century and was a contemporary to the reign of the Roman Emperor Vespasian, 69-79....
. - Ulpius Marcellus, a jurist during the reigns of Antoninus PiusAntoninus PiusAntoninus Pius , also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii. He did not possess the sobriquet "Pius" until after his accession to the throne...
and Marcus Aurelius. - Ulpius MarcellusUlpius MarcellusUlpius 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 tenure without serious incident...
, perhaps a son of the jurist, governor of BritanniaRoman BritainRoman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
during the reign of CommodusCommodusCommodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...
. - Ulpius MarcellusUlpius Marcellus (son)Ulpius Marcellus was formerly thought to be the latest-recorded governor of Britannia, before it was divided into separate provinces. He was supposed to be the son of Ulpius Marcellus, governor of Britannia 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. - Ulpius Julianus, praefectus praetorioPraetorian prefectPraetorian prefect was the title of a high office in the Roman Empire. Originating as the commander of the Praetorian Guard, the office gradually acquired extensive legal and administrative functions, with its holders becoming the Emperor's chief aides...
under the emperor MacrinusMacrinusMacrinus , was Roman Emperor from 217 to 218. Macrinus was of "Moorish" descent and the first emperor to become so without membership in the senatorial class.-Background and career:...
, he was sent to put down the rebellion of ElagabalusElagabalusElagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
, but was slain by his own troops, in AD 218. - Ulpia Gordiana, mother of emperor Gordian IGordian IGordian I , was Roman Emperor for one month with his son Gordian II in 238, the Year of the Six Emperors. Caught up in a rebellion against the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, he was defeated by forces loyal to Maximinus before committing suicide.-Early life:...
- Ulpius Crinitus, a general in the army of ValerianValerian (emperor)Valerian , also known as Valerian the Elder, was Roman Emperor from 253 to 260. He was taken captive by Persian king Shapur I after the Battle of Edessa, becoming the only Roman Emperor who was captured as a prisoner of war, resulting in wide-ranging instability across the Empire.-Origins and rise...
, and consul suffectus in AD 257, he adopted Lucius Domitius AurelianusAurelianAurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
, emperor from AD 270 to 275. - Ulpia SeverinaUlpia SeverinaUlpia Severina was a Roman Empress, the wife of the emperor Aurelian. There is evidence that she reigned in her own right for some period after Aurelian's death in 275, which would make her the only woman to have ruled over the entire Roman Empire by her own power. Very little is known about her,...
, wife of the emperor Aurelian, she may have been the natural daughter of Ulpius Crinitus. - Gaius Ulpius Cornelius LaelianusLaelianusUlpius Cornelius Laelianus was a usurper against Postumus, the emperor of the Gallic Empire. His revolt lasted from approximately late February to early June 269.-Origins:...
, one of the "Thirty TyrantsThirty Tyrants (Roman)The Thirty Tyrants were a series of thirty rulers that appear in the Historia Augusta as having ostensibly been pretenders to the throne of the Roman Empire during the reign of the emperor Gallienus....
", he rebelled against PostumusPostumusMarcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman emperor of Batavian origin. He usurped power from Gallienus in 260 and formed the so-called Gallic Empire...
and proclaimed himself emperor in AD 269, during the reign of GallienusGallienusGallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...
, but was slain at MoguntiacumMainzMainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
about two months later.