ABSTRACT
The third-century historian Cassius Dio, himself of provincial origin, had little respect for the phylogeny of the emperor Trajan, observing with barely disguised contempt that he was ‘an Iberian, and neither an Italian nor even an Italiot’, In fact one ancient account derives Trajan’s paternal family, the gens Ulpia, from Tuder (modern Todi), on the northern border of ancient Umbria, an area where the clan is independently recorded.1
Moreover, his own formal nomenclature, Marcus Ulpius Traianus, can be adduced in support of the asseveration: while the praenomen, or personal name, of Marcus was common enough throughout the Roman world, his other names seem specific to the same region. The gentilicium Ulpius, for example, is cognate with the Latin lupus (wolf) and probably derives from the Osco-Umbrian group of Italic languages. Likewise his personal name, or cognomen, Traianus, used to differentiate him from any kin who might share the same praenomen and nomen.
