Valeria (gens)

The Gens Valeria was a patrician family at Rome, which later included a number of plebeian branches. The Valeria gens was one of the most ancient and most celebrated at Rome; and no other Roman gens was distinguished for so long a period, although a few others, such as the Cornelia gens, produced a greater number of illustrious men. Publius Valerius, afterwards surnamed Poplicola or Publicola, played a distinguished part in the story of the expulsion of the Kings, and was elected consul in the first year of the Republic, BC 509. From this time forward, down to the latest period of the Empire, for nearly a thousand years, the name Valerius occurs more or less frequently in the Fasti, and it was borne by the emperors Maximinus, Maximianus, Maxentius, Diocletian, Constantius, Constantine the Great, and others.