Potitus was the name of one of the most ancient and most celebrated families of the Valeria Gens. This family, like many of the other ancient Roman families, disappears about the time of the Samnite wars; but the name was revived at a later period by the Valeria gens, as a praenomen: thus we find mention of a Potitus Valerius Messalla, who was consul suffectus in B. C. 29. The practice of using extinct family-names as praenomens was common to other gentes: as for instance in the Cornelia gens, where the Lentuli adopted, as a praenomen, the extinct cognomen of Cossus. [COSSUS; LENTULUS.]