ABSTRACT
The emperor Titus had unexpectedly died on 13 September 81 while Trajan was quaestor, and was succeeded with indecent haste by his brother Domitian. Domitian himself was a most complex person, who combined militant intolerance with puritanical fanaticism, a blend which resulted in the last years of his reign declining into bloody persecution. He was abhorred by many in his lifetime; the episodic commentaries and undisguised bias of the principal literary testators for the period-Tacitus, Pliny the Younger and Suetonius-hinder an objective assessment of his policies or even the establishment of an accurate chronicle for his fifteen-year reign.1 Even so, just as the accession of Vespasian was germane to the advancement of Traianus, so that of Domitian heralded a period which saw Trajan steadily augment the distinction of the Ulpii, confirming their status as loyal adherents to the Flavian dynasty as he too was gradually elevated to the highest offices of the state.
