Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Domitius Ulpianus

ULPIANUS, Domitius, Roman jurist, was of Tyrian ancestry, but the time and place of his birth are unknown. He made his first appearance in public life as assessor in the auditorium of Papinian and member of the council of Septimius Severus; under Caracalla he was master of the requests. Elagabalus deprived him of his functions and banished him from Rome, but on the accession of Alexander (222) he was at once recalled and reinstated, and finally became the emperor's chief adviser and praefectus prsetorio. His curtailment of the privileges granted to the praetorian guard by Elagabalus provoked their enmity, and several times he only narrowly escaped their vengeance; ultimately, in 228, he was murdered in the palace, in the course of a riot between the soldiers and the mob.

Ulpian's period of literary activity extended from about 211 to 222 A.D. His works include Ad Sabinum, a commentary on the jits civile in over fifty books; Ad Edictum, a commentary on the Edict, in eighty-three 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 Justinian'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. Domitii Ulpiani Fragmenta, consisting of twenty-nine titles, were first edited by Tilius (Paris, 1549). There are modern editions by Hugo (Berlin, 1834) and Bbcking (Bonn, 1836), the latter containing fragments of the first book of the Institutiones discovered by Endlicher at Vienna in 1835.