Valerius was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire, brother of the Empress Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia Augusta was the wife of Theodosius II, and a prominent historical figure in understanding the rise of Christianity during the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. Eudocia lived in a world where Greek paganism and Christianity were still coming together...

.

Life

Valerius was born in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, son of the pagan and sophist philosopher Leontius, and brother of Gessius

Gessius

Gessius was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire, brother of the Empress Aelia Eudocia.- Life :Gessius was born in Athens, son of the pagan and sophist philosopher Leontius, and brother of Valerius and Athenais. In 421 Athenais changed her name in Aelia Eudocia and married the Emperor...

 and Athenais. In 421 Athenais changed her name in Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia Augusta was the wife of Theodosius II, and a prominent historical figure in understanding the rise of Christianity during the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. Eudocia lived in a world where Greek paganism and Christianity were still coming together...

 and married the Emperor Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...

; as result, Valerius and Gessius received several honours.

First Valerius was appointed comes rerum privatarum (425), then comes sacrarum largitionum

Comes sacrarum largitionum

The comes sacrarum largitionum was one of the senior fiscal officials of the late Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire....

, then consul

Roman consul

A consul served in the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic.Each year, two consuls were elected together, to serve for a one-year term. Each consul was given veto power over his colleague and the officials would alternate each month...

 in 432, to be finally appointed magister officiorum

Magister officiorum

The magister officiorum was one of the most senior administrative officials in the late Roman Empire and the early centuries of the Byzantine Empire...

in 435.

In 455 Valerius wrote to his sister, at Jerusalem, trying to persuade he to leave the christological party of Eutyches

Eutyches

Eutyches was a presbyter and archimandrite at Constantinople. He first came to notice in 431 at the First Council of Ephesus, for his vehement opposition to the teachings of Nestorius; his condemnation of Nestorianism as heresy precipitated his being denounced as a heretic...

 an to return to the Nicene faith, to which Valerius evidently belonged.

Sources

• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Valerius 6", Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
  Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire
  Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire is a set of three volumes collectively describing every person attested or claimed to have lived in the Roman world from AD 260, the date of the beginning of Gallienus' sole rule, to 641, the date of the death of Heraclius, which is commonly held to mark the...
  
  , Cambridge University Press, 1971, ISBN 0521201594, pp. 1145.