827 



ULLOA, ANTONIO. 



ULPIANUS, DOMITITJS. 



223 



ing for the French corvette which carried the Academicians, and this 

 time was spent by Ulloa in studying the natural history of the 

 district. The geodetical operations commenced in the neighbourhood 

 of Quito, iu June 1736, and the exertions of Ulloa to advance them 

 were strenuous and indefatigable, till towards the close of September 

 1740, when Juan and he were summoned to Lima by the Vice- 

 roy to assist in placing the coasts in a state of defence against 

 the expected arrival of the English squadron under Anson. As soon 

 as the necessary arrangements were made they returned to the scene 

 of their labours, which were almost immediately interrupted by a 

 summons to Guayaquil, where the sack of Payta by the English had 

 spread universal terror. After the necessary measures for the security 

 of the province had been adopted, the terrified inhabitants insisted 

 upon one of the officers being left to superintend their execution. 

 Ulloa returned to Quito without his companion, and had scarcely 

 reached it when he was recalled to Lima. Two frigates were placed 

 under the command of himself and Juan, with orders to cruise along 

 the coast of Chili and off Juan Fernandez. At last the arrival of 

 reinforcements from Spain set them finally at liberty. On returning 

 to Quito however they found the Academicians had departed, with 

 the exception of Qodin, along with whom they observed the comet 

 of 1744. Ulloa and Juan embarked in October of that year on board 

 two French vessels to return to Europe. That which carried Ulloa 

 sought refuge from an English privateer in the harbour of Louisbourg 

 in Cape Breton, but by the time it entered, the town had fallen into 

 the hands of the English, and all on board were made prisoners of 

 war. Ulloa was conveyed to London, where he was 1'eceived with 

 marks of distinction, made a member; of the Royal Society, and by 

 the intercession of his scientific friends set at liberty. He arrived at 

 Madrid, in July 1746, after an absence of eleven years and two months 

 from his native country. 



Ulloa's reception at court was flattering ; he was appointed to the 

 command of a frigate, and created a commander of the order of San- 

 tiago. The task of publishing the scientific observations devolved 

 upon Jorge Juan : to write the history of the expedition was the 

 charge of Ulloa. Two years were consumed in preparing the narra- 

 tive for publication : it appeared in 1748. The work was comprised 

 in four volumes : the first relates the adventures of the expedition 

 from the time of its departure from Cadiz till the conclusion of the 

 geodetical measurements ; the second contains a description of the 

 province of Quito in one book ; the third, the narrative of Ulloa's 

 and Jorge Juan's journeys to Lima and cruise along the coasts of 

 Chili while a descent on the part of Anson was apprehended ; the 

 fourth, the return voyage from Callao to Europe, and an appendix 

 containing a chronological account of the rulers of Peru, from 

 Manco Capac to Ferdinand VI. The work shows that the necessity 

 of the case, as well as personal tastes, had contributed to devolve 

 the account of the strictly scientific operations of the expedition 

 upon Jorge Juan. Ulloa had more taste for knowledge than talent 

 for strict scientific inquiry. His activity and inventive genius, 

 fruitful in resources, had materially promoted the labours of the 

 expedition, and he had that passion for knowledge which enables 

 its possessor to give an impetus to discovery. But for the addi- 

 tions made to strict science by the Spanish members of the expe- 

 dition the world is beholden to Jorge Juan. Ulloa's work however, 

 though deficient in method and accuracy, is amusing and suggestive of 

 thought. He and Jorge Juan in the character of their intellects 

 stood in somewhat the same relation to each other as La Condamine 

 did to Bouguer ; but to the honour of the Spaniards, no paltry 

 jealousy occasioned unseemly quarrels between them, such as de- 

 tracted from the merits of the Academicians, and their harmonious 

 co-operation enabled them to get the start of their French associates 

 in publishing the results of their labours. Don David Barry published 

 in 1826 a volume which professes to contain the ' Secret Report,' 

 made by Juan and Ulloa to the minister Enseuada, of the condition 

 of Spanish America : it could have been wished that the editor had 

 given some account of the history of the manuscript, and the manner 

 in which it came into his hands. 



Ulloa subsequently made tours of observation, by order of the 

 Spanish government, in several countries of Europe. During the 

 reign of Ferdinand VI. however he appears to have been kept in the 

 background. Upon the accession of Charles III. innovation became 

 for a time fashionable at court, and the inquiring and enterprising 

 spirit of Ulloa found itself in a more congenial clement. After 

 Louisiana was ceded to the crown of Spain, in consequence of the 

 peace of 1762, he was nominated to take possession of and to organise 

 the province. He arrived at Louisiana in 1766, but bis attempt to 

 play the part of governor was an entire failure ; it was necessary to 

 supersede him by the appointment of O'Reilly. Ulloa after his return 

 to Europe published (in 1772) a volume of essays on the natural 

 history and antiquities of America. They bear, even more strongly 

 than his narrative of the expedition to South America, the impress of 

 a dilettante spirit of inquiry. In 1778 he published a memoir entitled 

 'The Marine; or the Naval Forces of Europe and Africa,' a work 

 which we have not met with. In 1778 he published, at Cadiz, 'Obser- 

 vations of a Solar Eclipse, made at Sea.' 



In 1779, having by this time risen to the rank of lieutenant-general 

 in the naval service, he was placed in command of a squadron fitted 



out to intercept and capture an English merchant fleet off the Azores, 

 and then to repair to Havannah, to join a larger force destined to make 

 a descent on Florida. Wholly engrossed by his speculative inquiries, 

 Ulloa forgot to open his sealed despatches, and returned to port after 

 an unsuccessful cruise of two months. He was arrested, tried by a 

 court-martial in 1780, allowed to retain his rank and titles, but never 

 aguin employed on active serivce. He even retained his pla.ce in the 

 ministry of the marine, but was only employed in examining the 

 pupils of the school of naval artillery. 



Ulloa died in the Isla da Leon, on the 3rd of July 1795. He 

 retained his constitutional gaiety and activity to the last. Visitors 

 found him surrounded with papers, antiquities, mathematical instru- 

 ment?, crucibles, in short all the nicknacks of science. But if not 

 himself a great philosopher, Ulloa aided materially in promoting that 

 temporary re-awaking of the intellectual activity of Spain, which 

 characterised the second half of last century. He contributed greatly 

 to the establishment of the observatory at Cadiz. Spain is indebted 

 to him for its first cabinet of natural history, and its first laboratory 

 of experimental metallurgy. He was a munificent patron of the arts of 

 printing and engraving. He superintended the construction of the maps 

 of the Peninsula. He originated the canal of navigation and irrigation 

 of Old Castile, commenced under Charles III., and abandoned by hia 

 successors. Ulloa superintended the establishment of a cloth manufac- 

 tory at the expense of the government, at Segovia, which was intended 

 to set the example of improving the domestic manufactures of Spain ; 

 and upon his urgent representations young Spaniards were sent to 

 acquire the liberal and mechanical arts in various countries of Europe. 



ULPIA'NUSjDOMI'TIUS, a distinguished Roman jurist, was either 

 a native of Tyre in Phoenicia, or his ancestors were of that place. The 

 year of his birth is not known. Tyre was made a Roman colony by 

 Septimius Severus, as appears from that emperor's medals (Rasebe, 

 'Lexic. Rei Numarise 'Tyrus'); but if that was the first Itornan 

 settlement at Tyre, Ulpian could owe nothing of his Roman education 

 to that city, even if it was his native place ; and his own words only 

 prove that he or his ancestors were from that place. In the reign of 

 Septimius Severus and of his son Antoninus Caracalla (A.D. 198-211), 

 he was a writer on law, but mora particularly under the sole reign 

 of Caracalla, as appears from various passages in his writings where he 

 speaks of Severus as ' divus," a term which implies that Severus was 

 then dead, and of Caracalla as ' imperator noster,' or the reigning 

 priuce. Ulpian was banished by Elagabalus, but the elevation of 

 Alexander Severus to the imperial power (A.D. 222) opened to him 

 the road to new honours. He became scriniorum magister and pra- 

 fectus annonse, and was a particular favourite of the emperor. He 

 also held the office of praefectus prsetorio under Alexander Severus ; 

 Lainpridius doubts whether he received his appointment under 

 Elagabalus or Alexander Severus, though it is stated that he certainly 

 held it under Alexander. If he held this office under Elagabalus, we 

 must assume that he waa deprived of it on his banishment. Ulpian 

 was a confidential adviser of Alexander, and exercised great influence 

 over him. Xiphilinus, the epitomator of Dion, fixes on Ulpian the 

 imputation of clearing the way for his promotion to the dignity of 

 prsBtorius prsefecto by causing the execution of his predecessors. This 

 fact is not mentioned by any other ancient authority, and it is incon- 

 sistent with the character which Lampridius gives Ulpian, whom he 

 calls a good man. Ulpian was murdered shortly after (A.D. 22i>), iu 

 the night-time, by the praetorian soldiers, in the palace of Alexander, 

 and in the presence of the emperor and the emperor's mother. (Dion, 

 lib. 80.) 



Ulpian was one of the most fertile of the Roman writers on law. 

 His chief works, as they are known to us from the 'Florentine Index ' 

 and the excerpts in the ' Digest,' are the following : The great work 

 ' Ad Edictum/ in eighty-three books at least, was probably founded on 

 the similar work of Julian, and itself was almost the basis of Justi- 

 nian's ' Digest.' This work, with the fifty-one ' Libri ad Sabinum,' 

 the twenty books ' Ad Leges Juliam et Papiam Poppaeam,' the three 

 books ' De Officio Consulis,' ten books ' De Officio Procunsulis,' the six 

 books on ' Fidei commissa,' two books of ' Institutiones,' and others, 

 were written in the reign of Caracalla. The work of which a fragment 

 is still extant, entitled 'Domitii Ulpiani Fragmenta,' was written 

 either in the reign of Caracalla (' hodie ex constitutions Imperatoris 

 Antonini,' Tit. xvi., 2), or after Caracalla's reign. This, which is gene- 

 rally considered to be a fragment of his ' Liber Singularis Regularum,' 

 consists of twenty-nine titles, and is a valuable source for our know- 

 ledge of the Roman law. This fragment, together with the ' Institu- 

 tiones ' of Qaius [GAIUS], has enabled us to attain to more correct 

 views on the historical development and the connection of the various 

 parts of the Roman law. Though it has long been known to jurists, 

 it is only within the present century that it has been used with that 

 critical discrimination which the study of Roman jurisprudence most 

 especially requu-es; and for this we are mainly indebted to the 

 labours of Hugo and Savigny. These fragments treat chiefly of the 

 law relating to persons and marriage, and on testaments, legacies, and 

 fidei-commissa. The most recent edition of the 'Fragmenta' is that 

 of E. Boecking, 12mo, Lips., 1855. Among Ulpian's other works was 

 probably one ' De Interdictis,' in four books at least, and certainly a 

 work ' De Officio Praetoris Tutelaris,' both of which are mentioned iu 

 the * Vaticana Fragmenta.' 



