Domitius Ulpian (died 228), or Domitius Ulpianus, was one of the most distinguished Roman jurists. He served as praetorian prefect and chief adviser to the emperor Alexander Severus.

Ulpian was born in Tyre in Phoenicia in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He had a fine legal education and had considerable experience with legal practice. He appears to have reached the high administrative positions of his career by holding varied positions in the Roman civil service. Earliest references to him are to the period when he was mainly known as a legal scholar. Scattered references in his massive written works date most of them to the reign of the emperor Caracalla (211-217). However, Ulpian's productions are so numerous that presumably much of the groundwork was done earlier, under Septimius Severus (193-211), and then completed under Caracalla.

Roman legal science had always depended heavily upon extensive commentary on a...