Ulpian (; ; 223 or 228) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

born in Tyre in Roman Syria (modern Lebanon). He moved to Rome and rose to become considered one of the great legal authorities of his time. He was one of the five jurists upon whom decisions were to be based according to the

Law of Citations The Law of Citations (''Lex citationum'') was a Roman law issued from Ravenna in AD 426 by the emperor Valentinian III, or rather by his regent mother, Galla Placidia Augusta, to the Senate and the people of Rome, and it was included in both Theod ...

Valentinian III Valentinian III (; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the Western Roman Empire, West from 425 to 455. Starting in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by civil wars among powerful general ...

, and supplied the

Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

'' Digest'' about a third of its contents.

Biography

The exact time and place of his birth are unknown. He was most literarily active between AD 211 and 222. He made his first appearance in public life as assessor in the auditorium of

Papinian Aemilius Papinianus (; ; 142 CE–212 CE), simply rendered as Papinian () in English, was a celebrated Roman jurist, ''magister libellorum'', attorney general (''advocatus fisci'') and, after the death of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus in 205 CE, ...

and member of the council of

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; ; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through cursus honorum, the ...

; under

Caracalla Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Lucius Septimius Bassianus, 4 April 188 – 8 April 217), better known by his nickname Caracalla (; ), was Roman emperor from 198 to 217 AD, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father and then r ...

he was master of the requests (''magister libellorum'').

Elagabalus Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, 204 – 13 March 222), better known by his posthumous nicknames Elagabalus ( ) and Heliogabalus ( ), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short r ...

(also known as Heliogabalus) banished him from

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, but on the accession of

Severus Alexander Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander (1 October 208 – March 235), also known as Alexander Severus, was Roman emperor from 222 until 235. He was the last emperor from the Severan dynasty. Alexander took power in 222, when he succeeded his slain c ...

(222) he was reinstated, and finally became the emperor's chief adviser and '' Praefectus Praetorio''. During the

Severan dynasty The Severan dynasty, sometimes called the Septimian dynasty, ruled the Roman Empire between 193 and 235. It was founded by the emperor Septimius Severus () and Julia Domna, his wife, when Septimius emerged victorious from civil war of 193 - 197, ...

, the position of

Praetorian prefect The praetorian prefect (; ) was 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 ai ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

came increasingly to resemble a general administrative post, and there was a tendency to appoint jurists such as Papinian, who occupied the post from 203 until his elimination and execution at the ascent of Caracalla. Under

the

Praetorian prefecture The praetorian prefecture (; in Ancient Greek, Greek variously named ) was the largest administrative division of the Late Antiquity, late Roman Empire, above the mid-level Roman diocese, dioceses and the low-level Roman province, provinces. Praeto ...

was held by Ulpian until his assassination by the

Guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison gu ...

in the presence of the Emperor himself. His curtailment of the privileges granted to the

Praetorian Guard The Praetorian Guard (Latin language, Latin: ''cohortes praetoriae'') was the imperial guard of the Imperial Roman army that served various roles for the Roman emperor including being a bodyguard unit, counterintelligence, crowd control and ga ...

provoked their enmity, and he narrowly escaped their vengeance; ultimately, he was murdered in the palace by the Guard, possibly in the course of a riot between the soldiers and the mob. He had a luxurious villa at

Santa Marinella Santa Marinella is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, in the Italy, Italian region of Lazio, located about northwest of Rome. It includes the beach resort of Santa Severa (the ancient Pyrgi), and a medieval ca ...

on the coast north of Rome.

Works

His works include ''Ad Sabinum'', a commentary on the ''ius civile'', in over 50 books; ''Ad edictum'', a commentary on the ''Edict'', in 83 books; collections of opinions, responses and disputations; books of rules and institutions; treatises on the functions of the different magistrates — one of them, the ''De officio proconsulis libri x.'', being a comprehensive exposition of the criminal law; monographs on various statutes, on testamentary trusts, and a variety of other works. His writings altogether have supplied to

's '' Digest'' about a third of its contents, and his commentary on the ''Edict'' alone about a fifth. As an author, he is characterized by doctrinal exposition of a high order, judiciousness of criticism, and lucidity of arrangement, style, and language. He is also credited with the first

life table In actuarial science and demography, a life table (also called a mortality table or actuarial table) is a table which shows, for each age, the probability that a person of that age will die before their next birthday ("probability of death"). In ...

ever. ''Domitii Ulpiani fragmenta'', consisting of 29 titles, were first edited by Tilius (Paris, 1549). Other editions are by Hugo (Berlin, 1834), Booking (Bonn, 1836), containing fragments of the first book of the ''Institutiones'' discovered by Endlicher at Vienna in 1835, and in Girard's ''Textes de droit romain'' (Paris, 1890).

Legacy

In the study of law, Ulpian may be best remembered for the phrase "''Juris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere'' (The basic principles of law are: to live honorably, not to harm any other person, to render each his own)". It had been assumed for a long time that Ulpian of Tyre was a model for

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

' Ulpian in ''

The Deipnosophists The ''Deipnosophistae'' (, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. , where ''sophists'' may be translated more loosely as ) is a work written in Ancient Greek by Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of Greek literature, literary, Ancient history, h ...

'' — or ''The Banquet of the Learned''. Athenaeus makes 'Ulpian' out to be a grammarian and philologist, characterised by his customary interjections: "Where does this word occur in writing?". He is represented as a symposiarch and he occupies a couch alone; his death is passed over in silence in Book XV 686c. Scholars today agree that

's Ulpian is not the historical Ulpian, but possibly his father. A potential date of the real Ulpian's death, 228 AD, has been wrongly used to estimate the date of completion of ''The Deipnosophists''. However, the year of his death cannot be determined with certainty. Robert Lee Cleve makes a compelling case that Ulpian died in 223, citing a papyrus discovered in 1966.Robert Lee Cleve, "Severus Alexander and the Severan Women" PhD diss (Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles, 1982): 222ff.

Editions

Notes

References

Tony Honoré Anthony Maurice Honoré (30 March 1921 – 26 February 2019) was a British lawyer and jurist known for his work on ownership, causation and Roman law.John Gardne''Tony Honoré as Teacher and Mentor: A Personal Memoir''; read 1 April 2014. Biogr ...

, ''Ulpian: Pioneer of Human Rights'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2002.

External links

* * * {{Authority control 170s births 223 deaths Ancient Roman jurists Severan dynasty 2nd-century Romans 3rd-century Romans 2nd-century writers 3rd-century writers Praetorian prefects Year of birth uncertain Annii Domitii Ancient Roman murder victims People from Tyre, Lebanon