Volesus or Volusus, sometimes called Volesus Valerius, was the eponymous ancestor of gens Valeria

Valerius

Valerius is the nomen of gens Valeria, one of the oldest patrician families of Rome. The name was in use throughout Roman history...

, one of the greatest patrician houses at Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. He is said to have come to Rome with Titus Tatius

Titus Tatius

The traditions of ancient Rome held that Titus Tatius was the Sabine king of Cures, who, after the rape of the Sabine women, attacked Rome and captured the Capitol with the treachery of Tarpeia. The Sabine women, however, convinced Tatius and the Roman king, Romulus, to reconcile and subsequently...

, king of the Sabine

Sabine

The Sabines were an Italic tribe that lived in the central Appennines of ancient Italy, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome...

 town of Cures

Cures

Cures, a Sabine town between the left bank of the Tiber and the Via Salaria, about 26 km. from Rome. According to legend, it was from Cures that Titus Tatius led to the Quirinal the Sabine settlers, from whom, after their union with the settlers on the Palatine, the whole Roman people took the...

, during the reign of Romulus

Romulus

- People:* Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome* Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman Emperor* Valerius Romulus , deified son of the Roman emperor Maxentius* Romulus , son of the Western Roman emperor Anthemius...

, the founder and first king of Rome.

Biographical Details

Little is known of Volesus, but it is generally assumed that he was himself a Sabine, and that he came from the town of Cures. The few historical mentions of him imply that he was a powerful warrior, which would explain his presence in the retinue of Titus Tatius, although his character may also have been suggested by his name, which was believed to derive from the Latin verb, valere, to be strong, or its Oscan cognate. He would probably have been born early in the eighth century B.C.

8th century BC

The 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC.-Overview:The 8th century BC was a period of great changes in civilizations. In Egypt, the 23rd and 24th dynasties led to rule from Nubia in the 25th Dynasty...

.

Legacy

As related by the historian Titus Livius

Livy

Titus Livius — known as Livy in English — was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, "Chapters from the Foundation of the City," covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome well before the traditional foundation in 753 BC...

 and others, much of the early Roman populace was of Sabine origin, and Volesus was claimed as ancestor by one of the oldest, largest, and noblest houses at Rome. His descendants held every magistracy of the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

, included scholars, statesmen, and generals, and were in the forefront of public affairs throughout the whole of Roman history.

The praenomen Volesus was also used occasionally by the Valerii, who also used it as a cognomen, usually with the spelling Volusus. The family also revived the praenomen from time to time, after it had fallen out of general use, as late as the 1st century AD The name was used by a few other gentes, including the gens Publilia, who used the form Volero, but the memory of Volesus, first of the Valerii, was the most enduring.