VALERII, DOMUS
(1) on the Caelian, on the site occupied now by the Ospedale
dell' Addolorata, where many remains of pavements, frescoes, and
works of art have been found (
LS iii. 69;
BC 1890, 288 ff.; 1902
145-163;
NS 1902, 268, 356, 463, 509;
1903, 59, 92), and eleven
inscriptions (
CIL vi. 1684-1694; PT 292) relating to the family in the
fourth century. This house was offered for sale in 404 A.D., but found
no buyer on account of its magnificence, while six years later, after
the sack of Rome by Alaric, it was sold for almost nothing (vit. S.
Melaniae iun. in Anal. Boll. 8
(1889), 31 ff. c. 14). It seems to have
been transformed into a hospital-Xenodochium Valeriorum or a
Valeriis (Greg. Magn. reg. ix. 82; LPxcvi. 15 (Stephanus III); xcviii. 81
(Leo III) ;
LPD i. 482, n. 26, 456, n. 4;
ii. 46, n. IO8; Kehr, i. 43-44,
156;
BC 1902, 150; Arm. 122-124; HJ 240; LR 347; Grisar,
Geschichte
Rorns i. 48-50).
A little north of this site, in the villa Casali, were found other ruins
and an inscribed basis of L,. Valerius Poplicola Maximus, consul in
232 or 253 A.D. (
CIL vi. 1532; cf. 1531 ;
Pros. iii. 376. 121).
(2) on the Palatine, said to have been presented by the state to
M. Valerius Volusus Maximus, dictator in 494 B.C. (Val. Ant. ap. Asc.
in Pison. 52;
JRS 1914, 208).
(3) in summa Velia, the house in which P. Valerius Publicola,
consul in 509 B.C., lived until he was forced to tear it down because it
seemed too much like a stronghold, and to build again infra Veliam
(
Liv. ii. 7; Cic. de rep. ii. 53; Plut. Popl. o ;
Dionys. v. 19; Val. Max.
iv. I. 1). This site was afterwards occupied by the temple of Vica
Pota (Liv. loc. cit.). According to a variant tradition, a house
sub Veliis (Asc. in Pison. 52,
ubi aedes Victoriae=Vicae Potae), or
in Velia (Cic. de Har. resp. 16), was given to Valerius as a special
honour (cf. Plin.
NH xxxvi. 112, where there is no indication of site),
or on the Palatine (
Dionys. v. 39). The body of P. Valerius is also said
to have been buried in a sepulchre given by the state
ὑπ̓ Οὐελίας
(
Dionys. v. 48; cf. Cic. de legg. ii. 58; Plut. Popl. 23; Quaest. Rom.
79), and fragments of elogia of two members of the family, M. Valerius
Messala Niger, consul in 69 B.C., and M. Valerius Messala Corvinus,
consul in 31 B.C., have been found behind the basilica of Constantine,
where they had probably been carried from their original position
(CIL i². pp. 190, 20 ;
vi. 31618; EE iii. I-4).
It is probable that the variants under (2) and (3) refer to one house,
on the western slope of the Velia, where the sepulchre was also located.
