I have saved Iulia with silphium and gotten her to tell me about her's and Ulpius's debt bondage. After this, I have persuaded Claudia to give me the love letter in which Malleolus/Quinctius uses his true name, and I have held on to it after Claudia demands it back. I have then used the letter to request Malleolus/Quinctius to withdraw from the election and release both Iulia and Ulpius from debt bondage. Following this, Malleolus passes his orders in this regard on to Domitius; I have overheard this. Nonetheless, when I go to try and save Ulpius, he still asks me for 2,000 denarii to release him and Iulia from their bondage and jumps when I tell him that I do not have that much money.

Is this a bug? How to save Ulpius?

Originally posted by ModernStoryteller:

Thanks for your report. This is a bug we're working on. In the meantime, delegate the errand to Galerius and you'll have saved Ulpius.

There is a related bug where if you pay Ulpius 2,000 to save him and then hold elections on the same day, he thanks Galerius for saving him during the election speech because the game assumes you are letting Galerius run all your errands by then.

Same thing happened to me. I was only able to save him after another loop when I had Galerius handle it.

I had somewhat the opposite, where I did it in a different order and set them free twice.
I first gave Ulpius the money, and later talked with Domitius to withdraw from the election. But had two options, just withdraw and withdraw and set the two free. Even though they where already free, probably so I can skip the payment.

So sounds like a bug, where they didn't expect your order of actions

It's the same for both Iulia and Ulpius. If you force Malleolus to release them first you can't actually tell either of them about it when you go to save them.

Thanks for your report. This is a bug we're working on. In the meantime, delegate the errand to Galerius and you'll have saved Ulpius.

After you've saved Julia and Ulpius once, always have Galerius do so afterward whenever the game loops.