The cognomen , meaning "left-handed", belonged to a family of the Valerii that was prominent for about a century, beginning with the Pyrrhic War, in 280 BC. This family may have been another offshoot of the Valerii Maximi, as the surname first appears in connection with the trial of Spurius Cassius Viscellinus in 485 BC. They continued long after they had ceased to have any importance in the Roman state, and the family is mentioned as late as the end of the first century AD.