Ulpia (full name possibly Ulpia Plotina, about 31 - before 86) was a noble
Roman woman from the gens Ulpia settled in Spain during the 1st century CE. She was the paternal aunt of the Roman emperor
Trajan and the paternal grandmother of the emperor
Hadrian.
A very wealthy woman named Ulpia M. f. Plotina ("M. f." meaning her fathers praenomen was Marcus) that is attested from a
triptych dated July 19,
69 AD from
Herculaneum has been speculated by several historians to be Trajan's aunt and Hadrian's grandmother. This is mainly due to sharing her rare cognomen with Trajan's wife
Pompeia Plotina, which by extension has also led to speculation that Trajan and empress Pompeia Plotina were related.[7][8] The inscription describes this Ulpia Plotina being owed 15,000
denarii by a businessman named Lucius Cominius Primus. Based on another text Primus was also lending money to a woman named Pompeia Anthis who was in the custody of a man named Gaius Vibius Erytus.[9] As with the
Pompeii, the
gens Vibia was associated with the imperial family through Trajan, his grandniece being
Vibia Sabina, the eventual consort of Hadrian.[10] Historian's theorizing this include
Päivi Setälä,[11]Alison E. Cooley,[12]Christian Settipani,[13]Anthony R. Birley,[14] and
Julian Bennett;[15]Ronald Syme did not assume an exact relation to the imperial family but believed her to be a kinswoman of Trajan.[16]
^The epitomator of Cassius Dio (
72.22) gives the story that Faustina the Elder promised to marry Avidius Cassius. This is also echoed in HA"Marcus Aurelius" 24.
Giacosa, Giorgio (1977). Women of the Caesars: Their Lives and Portraits on Coins. Translated by R. Ross Holloway. Milan: Edizioni Arte e Moneta.
ISBN0-8390-0193-2.
Lambert, Royston (1984). Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous. New York: Viking.
ISBN0-670-15708-2.
^Drăgan, Iosif Constantin (1985).
Dacia's Imperial Millennium. Nagard Publ. p. 117. Ulpia, his grandmother, was the sister of M. Ulpius Trajanus, Trajan's father, so Hadrian was the emperor's nephew by a cousin of the first degree.
^Trahan, Conrad W. (1979).
A Trahan History and Genealogy. Trahan. p. 173. Trajan's paternal aunt Ulpia was 6 Hadrian's grandmother and Hadrian came from Adria on the Adige . ?
^Levick, Barbara (2014).
Faustina I and II: Imperial Women of the Golden Age. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. p. 35.
ISBN978-0-19-537941-9. Sabina wed Hadrian in about 100. The year 112 brought her the prospect of additional distinction. Her grandmother Ulpia Marciana died at the end of August ...
^Temporini, Hildegard (2011). Die Frauen am Hofe Trajans: Ein Beitrag zur Stellung der Augustae im Principat (in German). Walter de Gruyter. p. 14.
ISBN9783110821567.
^Burns, Jasper (2006). Great Women of Imperial Rome: Mothers and Wives of the Caesars. Routledge. p. 112.
ISBN9781134131853.
^Cooley, Alison; Cooley, M. G. L. (2013). Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Sourcebook. Routledge. p. 261.
ISBN9781134624492.
^Phang, Sara Elise (2022). Daily Life of Women in Ancient Rome. ABC-CLIO. p. 129.
ISBN9781440871696.
^Setälä, Päivi; Setala, Paivi; Savunen, Liisa (1999).
Female Networks and the Public Sphere in Roman Society. Institutum Romanum Finlandiae. p. 14.
ISBN978-951-96902-9-2. We may compare, for instance, Ulpia Plotina (possibly a relative, perhaps the aunt, of Trajan and paternal grandmother of Hadrian, mentioned in ...
^Cooley, Alison E. (2012-09-13).
The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge University Press. p. 101.
ISBN978-1-139-57660-4. A water-pipe stamped with Ulpiae Marcianae ('Of Ulpia Marciana') probably from ... (possibly Trajan's aunt and Hadrian's paternal grandmother): Camodeca, ...
^Settipani, Christian (2000). Continuité gentilice et continuité familiale dans les familles sénatoriales romaines à l'époque impériale: mythe et réalité. Prosopographica et genealogica (in Italian). Vol. 2 (illustrated ed.). Unit for Prosopographical Research, Linacre College, University of Oxford. pp. 285, 294.
ISBN9781900934022.
^Birley, Anthony R (2012). Marcus Aurelius: A Biography. Roman Imperial Biographies (reworked ed.). Routledge.
ISBN9781134695690.
^Bennett, Julian (2003). Trajan: Optimus Princeps. Routledge. p. 25.
ISBN9781134709144.
^Syme, Ronald (1979). Roman Papers. Vol. 7. Clarendon Press. p. 706.
ISBN9780198144908.
Sources
History of Horoscopic Astrology By James H. Holden
Rodgers, N., The History and Conquests of Ancient Rome, Hermes House, 2005.