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Publius Valerius Publicola (or Poplicola, his surname meaning "friend of the people") (d. 503 BC) was a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic. According to Livy and Plutarch, his family, whose ancestor Volusus had settled in Rome at the time of King Titus Tatius, was of Sabine origin. He took a prominent part in the expulsion of the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and the establishment of the republic. Though not originally chosen as the colleague of Brutus he soon took the place of Tarquinius Collatinus.

On the death of Brutus, which left him sole consul, the people began to fear that he was aiming at kingly power. To calm their apprehensions he discontinued the building of his house on the top of the Velian Hill, and also gave orders that the fasces should be lowered whenever he appeared before the people. He further introduced two laws to protect the liberties of the citizens, one enacting that whosoever should attempt to make himself a king might be slain by any man at any time (this was the law invoked by the Liberatores as justification for their assassination of Julius Caesar), while another provided an appeal to the people on behalf of any citizen condemned by a magistrate. He died in 503 BC, and was buried at the public expense, the matrons mourning him for ten months.

A collection of eighty-five essays about the US Constitution, called The Federalist Papers, were written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison during 1787-1788 under the allonym Publius in honor of his role in establishing the Roman Republic.

• Lapis Satricanus

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.