Information About

Scribonia




According to Suetonius , before marrying Octavius (future Caesar Augustus ), she had been previously married to two former consuls. Her first husband is unknown, however her second husband was Publius Cornelius Scipio Salvito . They had a daughter Cornelia Scipio who married Lucius Aemilius Paullus who served as a censor. Salvito committed suicide in 46BC, after Caesar won the Civil War. He was a supporter of Pompey The Great .

In 40 BC Octavian , who was younger than her by ten years, divorced Clodia (His first wife) and married her to cement a political alliance with her great-uncle Sextus Pompeius . Their daughter Julia The Elder was born in 39 BC , probably in October, and on that very same day Octavian divorced her [ Dio Cassius 48.34.3]).

Their marriage had not been a happy one; Octavian felt she nagged him too much and disliked that she used him to threaten others. She never remarried. When her daughter was sent into exile for prodigious Adultery she accompanied her, feeling guilty that she had evidently not been a sufficient role model for Julia to follow. When Tiberius came into power, he separated Scribonia from her daughter, and allegedly starved Julia to death. Scribonia died two years later exile; many modern historians consider her an ideal example of the Roman matron.


Scribonia in Drama/Literature


Little is known about Scibonia, but she is mentioned in various dramas and novels, each having a different opinion on what she was like.


Literature


  • Scribonia is mentioned in Robert Grave's novel '' I, Claudius '' when he recalls Julia's birth and later when Julia is exiled. He describes her as a good, moderate and generally kind Roman matron. She is forbidden to see Julia and is only allowed to be with her once she is exiled.

  • ---Livia convinces Augustus that Scribonia has been unfaithful to him causing him to divorce her faster then he cared to. Scribonia was innocent.


  • --Evidently Augustus believed she was innocent too, he kept Julia.

  • ---Robert Graves claims Scribonia died of a fever on the island while Julia was in banishment. This is not true, Scribonia died of natural causes two years ''after'' Julia in 16 AD .

  • Scribonia gets several mentions in the novel ''Augustus'' by Allan Massie . Her personality takes a completely different turn of what history claims. She is ugly, gap-toothed and fat. Rather than being ten years older then Augustus, she is twenty years older.

  • ---Augustus divorces her after Julia's birth to legitimise her.

  • ---Scribonia writes to Augustus, begging him to let her see Julia, he always says no.

  • ---Allan Massie appears to suggest that Julia got her personality from Scribonia rather than Augustus as historians tend to claim.



Drama


  • Scribonia, though she doesn't appear, is mentioned on and off during ''''.

  • ---Only a few years older then Augustus.

  • ---Augustus marries her for her money.

  • ---Maecenas describes her as being "boring" and a "noble woman of the Scipio family".

  • ---Julia blames her father for his bad treatment of people, including her mother, saying that he just used her to get a baby off her.


  • --Augustus claims he loved Scribonia in his own way, because she gave him Julia.


  • --Julia claims he loved her money.