Valeria was the daughter of a man named Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger and Hortensia.
[2] An "alert young divorcee", as Ronald Syme writes,[3] she attracted the notice of Sulla at the theatre.
She and her cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger were seated behind Sulla due to being relatives of a recently retired chief vestal named Caecilia Metella Balearica, which explains why she as a relatively unimportant woman was seated so close to the dictator.
[4] He then learned that she was unmarried and the niece of Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, who was a son-in-law to one of Sullas major supporters.
[5] It is likely that her cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Niger who had accompanied her owed his status as pontifex to Sulla.