 The main sources for Orca's life are letters written to him by Cicero and passages in Caesar's "Bellum Civile".Orca is generally regarded as the son of Quintus Valerius Soranus, a partisan of Gaius Marius who was executed during the Sullan proscriptions of 82 BC, allegedly for violating a religious prohibition against revealing the secret name of Rome.The family came from the municipality of Sora, near Cicero's native Arpinum.