Marcus Ulpius Traianus
29 – 100 · Generation VI · Governor of Syria
Marcus Ulpius (AD 29 – AD 100). Governor of Syria. Married Marcia around AD 50. A senator’s son from Italica in Spain who rose to the consulship. He came of a branch of the Ulpii whose roots lay in Tuder in Umbria, joined by marriage to the Traii, another of Italica’s leading families. His sister Ulpia was grandmother of the emperor Hadrian. Under Vespasian, then governor of Judaea, he commanded the Tenth Legion in the Jewish war of 67–68, and once Vespasian took the throne he was rewarded with Cappadocia and a suffect consulship in 72, going on to govern Syria and, in 79–80, the province of Asia; at some point he also governed his native Baetica. His wife Marcia’s sister became the second wife of Titus, a link that helped his rise. Besides a daughter, Ulpia Marciana, they had a son who became the emperor Trajan and named the African colony of Thamugadi, now Timgad, for his parents in 100 and deified his father in 112.
Place in the family
- The archive records 4 of his descendants, across 3 generations.
Partners
- Married Marcia of Italica (30 – 100) in 50 — 2 children together
Children
- Trajan Optimus (53 – 117)
- Ulpia Marciana (48 – 112)
Life
- 29 — Born
- 50 — Married Marcia
- 100 — Died