Ulpian

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Domitius Ulpianus († 223 or 228 AD in Rome ), usually briefly called Ulpian , was a late classical Roman lawyer and high civil servant who, among other things, exercised the function of Praetorian prefect . Around a third of the material in the Justinian digests is taken from his works. Little is known about his person.

Life

There are only sparse sources that allow conclusions to be drawn about Ulpian's life. The few details in his works and the writings of other lawyers are of little help. Even Ulpian's full name is unknown. It is only certain that he carried the gentile name Domitius . Wolfgang Kunkel identifies him as Gnaeus Domitius Annius Ulpianus , attested by an inscription on a lead pipe that was found in a villa in Centumcellae northwest of Rome. Kunkel points out that the villa belonged to a rich and influential man who must be attested in historical sources. However, since only the lawyer Domitius Ulpianus is attested, he is the most likely owner of the villa.

The city of Tyros in the province of Syria , which he himself describes as his origo (origin, descent), is generally considered to be his place of origin. Whether it can be concluded from this designation that Tire was also his place of birth has repeatedly been questioned without result. On the other hand, the term splendidissima ("brightest") is commonly used as an expression of love for home. Semitisms used by Ulpian and his knowledge of the conditions in the eastern Mediterranean did not help.

Little is known about Ulpian's family either. It is considered likely that he came from the native Hellenistic population of Tire. Italian military colonists only came to Tire under Septimius Severus , so that Ulpian can hardly be descended from them. It was sometimes assumed that the sophist Ulpianos was his father. If Kunkel's name reconstruction is correct, he could be brought into connection with the governor Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, who was appointed under Nero in Syria , whose daughter was married to a member of the Annier family. Had Ulpian's family been granted Roman citizenship under Corbulo , the correspondence between the three names could be explained.

Political career

Likewise, it is only possible to speculate about the beginnings of Ulpian's work. A reference to the decision of a city praetor suggests that he began his career in his service. However, the decision of the praetor dates back to the sole government of Emperor Caracalla , under which Ulpian worked together with the somewhat older Paulus as an assessor in the consilium of the well-known lawyer Papinian and therefore had to be advanced in his career. Ulpian was significantly influenced by Papinian. However, he cannot be considered as his sole teacher unless it is assumed that Papinian has called a beginner and layman to his consilium . Instead, one tried to assign Ulpian and Paulus to the auditorium of the Scaevola . But even this remains largely speculative.

In 208 AD, Ulpian took part in a campaign by Emperor Septimius Severus to Britain . His literary work then falls almost without exception during the reign of his successor Caracalla from 211 to 217. Under him he is said to have headed the law firm a libellis responsible for petitions . While this contradicts historical sources, it is considered more likely chronologically and generally accepted. In this function he would have had access to the law firm's archives, which could explain his rich work in precisely this period. Tony Honoré also advocates the thesis that Ulpian is said to have exercised the office from the beginning of 205 until May 209 after the fall of the dragonfly secretary Aelius Coeranus. In any case, Ulpian survived the palace revolution at the end of 211, in the course of which Papinian was killed, unscathed. Obviously, Ulpian had become Caracallas partisan in time. Possibly even the constitutio Antoniniana , which gave all imperial residents Roman citizenship, was his idea from the year 212 .

Allegedly Ulpian was banished from Rome by Elagabal . After he was murdered on March 11, 222, Ulpian rose to the highest state offices under his successor Severus Alexander . Already on March 31 of the same year it is attested as praefectus annonae . As the holder of this office, he was responsible for the food supply. Apparently he also played an important role as an advisor to the imperial family. In the same year Julia Mamaea and Julia Maesa , who led the affairs of state for the 13-year-old emperor, transferred him as Praetorian prefect , endowed with the highest dignity after the emperor, the supreme command of the Praetorian Guard . In this group, however, Ulpian could not firmly establish himself, probably also because he was supposed to limit their influence. Cassius Dio reports of three days of street fighting between the Praetorians and the city population, which led to chaotic conditions in the city. It was only when the beleaguered Praetorians set fire to houses and a general conflagration threatened that their opponents gave in. He had his co-prefects Julius Flavianus and Geminius Chrestus executed.

Either in the following year or in AD 228, there was a mutiny that forced Ulpian to flee the imperial palace and in the course of which he was finally murdered in front of the emperor and his mother.

The main responsible for the murder, Epagathus, could not be punished in Rome because of the danger of new unrest. He was therefore removed from the capital under the pretext of being appointed governor of Egypt and taken from Egypt to Crete, where he was executed.

plant

Ulpian's most important works are Ad Sabinum , a commentary on ius civile in 51 books, and Ad edictum , a commentary on the praetoric edict in 83 books. He also produced collections of opinions, replies and disputations, books on guidelines and institutions, and treatises on the functions of the various magistrates. The most important of the latter is De officio proconsulis libri decem and contains a comprehensive exposition of criminal law . There are also monographs on various statutes, estate foundations and many other works. Justinian's digests owe about a third of their content to Ulpian's writings. His edict comment alone fills a fifth of the digest.

The great authority of Ulpian's writings is also proven by the 426 of the emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III. enacted citation law , according to which his legal opinion should be decisive in legal decisions alongside that of Gaius , his teacher Papinian, Modestinus and his colleague Paulus . The value of his work was questioned, especially in the older specialist literature, as he had brought little new in comparison to Papinian. Nonetheless, this is due to the fact that Ulpian's work as a whole is more characterized by a summary and systematization of the writings of classical jurists than by new dogmatic developments. Under Constantine , Ulpian and Paulus had in the meantime (namely 321 AD) even been censored and banned, as both had written critical notes on responses by Papinian , who was valued by the emperor .

The so-called interest theory developed by Ulpian, which can be used to distinguish public and private law, continues to have an effect today . According to her, a legal issue must always be attributed to public law if state interests ( re publica ) are concerned, while private law concerns individual interests . Today's prevailing opinion nevertheless falls back on other delimitation criteria.

The Domitii Ulpiani fragmenta , consisting of 29 titles, were first published by Tilius (Paris 1549). Other editions come from Hugo (Berlin 1834), Eduard Böcking (Bonn 1836), which also contain fragments of the first book of the Institutiones , which were discovered by Stephan Ladislaus Endlicher in Vienna in 1835 . They are also included in Girard's Textes de droit romain (Paris 1890).

Text output

  • Eduard Böcking (Ed.): Liber singularis regularum codicis Vaticani exemplum . Hirzel, Leipzig 1855.
  • Rudolf von Gneist : Institutionum et regularum juris Romani syntagma exhibens [...] Ulpiani librum singularem regularum [...] . Leipzig 1880.
  • Fritz Schulz (Ed.): The Epitome Ulpiani of the Codex Vaticanus Reginae 1128 . Marcus & Weber, Bonn 1926.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Kunkel : The Roman Jurists - Origin and Social Position , Cologne 2001, p. 252.
  2. ↑ Ulp. Dig. 50, 15, 1 pr.
  3. ^ Paul Jörs : RE 1905, col. 1438; Paul Krüger: History of the sources and literature of Roman law , Leipzig 1888, p. 215; Leopold Wenger : The sources of Roman law , Vienna 1953, p. 519.
  4. ^ Franz Peter Bremer: The legal teachers and legal schools in the Roman Empire , Berlin 1868, pp. 83-85.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Kunkel: The Roman Jurists - Origin and Social Position , Cologne 2001, p. 247.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Kunkel: The Roman Jurists - Origin and Social Position , Cologne 2001, p. 253.
  7. ↑ Dig. 4, 2, 9, 3.
  8. ^ Paul Jörs: RE 1905 , col. 1438.
  9. ^ Paul Jörs: RE 1905 , col. 1438.
  10. ^ Franz Peter Bremer: The legal teachers and schools of law in the Roman Empire , Berlin 1868, p. 53 f.
  11. ↑ According to Historia Augusta , Vita Pescennii Nigri 7, 4 he only received this office under Elagabal .
  12. ↑ so already Paul Krüger: History of the sources and literature of Roman law , Leipzig 1888, p. 215; Paul Jörs: RE 1905 , col. 1436; Wolfgang Kunkel: The Roman Jurists - Origin and Social Position , Cologne 2001, p. 246; but Robert Lee Cleve has a different view: Severus Alexander and the Severan Women , Los Angeles 1982, pp. 212-216.
  13. ↑ Historia Augusta, Vita Heliogabali 16.4.
  14. ^ Franz Peter Bremer: The legal teachers and schools of law in the Roman Empire , published by I. Guttentag, Berlin 1868, p. 71 ff. (75).
  15. ^ Paul Jörs: RE 1905 , col. 1438; Paul Krüger: History of the sources and literature of Roman law , Leipzig 1888, p. 215; Leopold Wenger: The sources of Roman law , Vienna 1953, p. 519.
  16. ↑ Cassius Dio 80,2,3. Cf. Julia Sünskes Thompson: Uprisings and protest actions in the Imperium Romanum , Bonn 1990, pp. 41, 81, 128 f.
  17. ↑ According to the prevailing view in research, the two prefects were subordinate to Ulpian. On a different hypothesis that Ulpian was the sole Praetorian prefect, see Lukas de Blois: Ulpian's Death . In: Pol Defosse (Ed.): Hommages à Carl Deroux , Vol. 3, Bruxelles 2003, pp. 135–145, here: 135–139.
  18. ^ Paul Jörs: RE 1905 , col. 1438; Paul Krüger: History of the sources and literature of Roman law , Leipzig 1888, p. 215; Leopold Wenger: The sources of Roman law , Vienna 1953, p. 519.
  19. ↑ Cassius Dio 80,2,4. See Julia Sünskes Thompson: Uprising and protest actions in the Imperium Romanum , Bonn 1990, pp. 41, 81–83. For the dating of the events, see Cécile Bertrand-Dagenbach: Alexandre Sévère et l'Histoire Auguste , Bruxelles 1990, p. 16, note 6.
  20. ↑ Further processing from books 35 to 38 can be found in the Scholia Sinaitica scroll .
  21. ^ Paul Krüger : History of the sources and literature of Roman law , Leipzig 1888, p. 223.
  22. ^ Paul Krüger: History of the sources and literature of Roman law , Leipzig 1888, p. 203; 223 f.
  23. ↑ Detlef Liebs : The jurisprudence in late antique Italy (260-640 AD) (= Freiburg legal-historical treatises. New series, volume 8). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, pp. 283-287 (abstract / p. 287).
  24. ↑ Ulp. Dig. 1, 1, 1, 2
personal data
SURNAME Ulpian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Domitius Ulpianus (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman jurist
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 223 or 228
Place of death Rome