Traianus belonged to a branch of the
gens Ulpia, which originally came from the
Umbrian city of
Tuder, but he was born and raised in the
Roman colony of
Italica, north of modern
Santiponce and northwest of
Seville, in the Roman Province of
Hispania Baetica. The town was founded in 206 BC by
Scipio Africanus, as a settlement for wounded and invalid veterans of the wars against Carthage. The Ulpii, like the
Aelii and the
Traii, were among the leading Roman families of the city. From the latter family came the ancestors of Traianus, who intermarried with the Ulpii, giving rise to the
cognomen Traianus. Since the father of Traianus joined the ranks of the
senators in Rome, it is very likely that his grandfather was already a member of the
Roman Senate. The ancestry of Traianus' mother is unknown. His sister
Ulpia was the mother of
Publius Aelius Hadrianus Afer, and grandmother of the
emperor Hadrian. Traianus married a Roman noblewoman named
Marcia. She was the elder sister of
Marcia Furnilla, the second wife of
Titus, which enabled her to further her husband's career. They had two children: a daughter,
Ulpia Marciana, and a son, Marcus, the future emperor
Trajan. ==Career==