It is speculated that he was the son of Valerius Maximus and second wife possibly a Vulcacia, supposedly the daughter of a Neratius Junius Flavianus.
It has been postulated that they had two children, a son, Maximus, and a daughter, Valeria, who may have become a Christian through her possible marriage to a Rufius Maecius Placidus.
[2] In the late 361, Maximus and Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus, both sent by the Roman Senate to Emperor Constantius II, meet Julian at Naissus.
Julian received them with all honors,[3] then he appointed Maximus as praefectus urbi of Rome in place of Tertullus (praefectus urbi); his choice was motivated by the desire to please Vulcacius Rufinus, uncle of Maximus.
[8] Clytholias Maximus[3] was nephew of Vulcatius Rufinus[4] and Neratius Cerealis and therefore a first cousin of Constantius Gallus (son of Galla, and half-brother of Julian the Apostate).