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.[1] The city of
Serdica, modern day
Sofia, was renamed as Ulpia Serdica.[2]
Origin
The Ulpii were from
Umbria. 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 word lupus, meaning "wolf"; perhaps related to vulpes, Latin for "fox".[3]
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, 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.[4][5][6]
Members
This list includes abbreviated
praenomina. For an explanation of this practice, see
filiation.
Ulpius Marcellus, 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. (Not the same woman as the one recorded in Pompeii.)[13]
Marcus Ulpius M. f. Flavius Tisamenus, elder son of the consul Eubiotus Leurus.[20]
Marcus Ulpius M. f. Pupienus Maximus, younger son of the consul Eubiotus Leurus.[20]
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.[21][22]
Ulpia Severina, 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, dating between the late third and mid-fourth century; from his name perhaps a descendant of the consul Marcus Ulpius Leurus.[27]
Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (
Pliny the Younger), Panegyricus Trajani (Panegyric on Trajan).
Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus (
Cassius Dio), Roman History.
Herodianus, 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).
Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont, 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, Doctrina Numorum Veterum (The Study of Ancient Coins, 1792–1798).