Ulpius Marcellus (jurist)

Ulpius Marcellus was a Roman jurist of equestrian status, probably of freedman or provincial origin from Asia Minor, active in the 2nd century AD. Ancient sources are uncertain whether he can be identified with a Roman official of the same name who served as legate and propraetor in Pannonia Inferior and, separately, as governor of Britannia between about 161 and 169 AD, and whether he in fact advised the emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, since the surviving record of his career and its dates does not resolve the question cleanly. He may have held the consulship in 158 AD. His legal writings, cited by later jurists and excerpted into Justinian's Digest, include a treatise titled On the Duties of the Consul, a collection of Consultative Opinions, notes responding to the jurist Cervidius Scaevola, thirty-one books of Digesta, and critical notes on the innovations of the jurist Julianus.