Volesus, Volusus, or Volero is a Latin praenomen

Praenomen

The praenomen was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the dies lustricus , the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birth of a boy...

, or personal name

Given name

A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...

, which was occasionally used during the period 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...

, and briefly revived in imperial times. It gave rise to the patronymic gentes Valeria and Volusia. The feminine form is Volesa or Volusa. The name was not normally abbreviated, but occasionally appears with the abbreviation Vol.

The praenomen Volesus, also spelled Volusus, and perhaps also Valesus, is best known from Volesus

Volesus

Volesus or Volusus, sometimes called Volesus Valerius, was the eponymous ancestor of gens Valeria, one of the greatest patrician houses at Rome...

, the founder of gens Valeria, who was 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 name was used by the early Valerii, first as praenomen, then as cognomen; the praenomen was occasionally revived by that great patrician house, which used it as late as the 1st century AD The form Volero was regularly used by the plebeian gens Publilia. The name must also once have been used by gens Volusia, and perhaps also by the gentes Condetia and Vecilia.

Origin and Meaning of the Name

It is generally assumed that Volesus was originally an Oscan praenomen which came to Rome with the founder of the Valerii. However, the name may nonetheless belong to that class of praenomina which was common to both the Latin and Oscan languages, as it was accepted by the Latin family of the Publilii, and was regarded as Latin by the scholar Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro

Marcus Terentius Varro was an ancient Roman scholar and writer. He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus.-Biography:...

, who listed it amongst several antique praenomina, no longer in general use during the 1st century BC.

Volesus is generally thought to be derived from the Latin verb valere, to be strong, or its Oscan cognate. Chase, however, prefers to derive it from volo, to wish or desire.