Talk:Scribonia (wife of Octavian)

message: I heard that ancient historians referred to Scribonia as being, like ten or even twenty years older then Augustus, is the infomation here wrong? --82.34.129.62 21:29, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: A majority of ancient historians based their histories on what Augustus told them-- and very one-sided source. There is only one comment on her age and that said "his elder by many years" it didn't give a number of years, so as far as I know. She couldn't have been twenty-years-older because she outlived Augustus and Julia, and lived till at least the end of 16, if it was twenty years she would have been 98! People today don't normally get to that age let alone back in a time when mortality of people was very low. Ten years is more likely but still just a bit too much; ten years would have made her 86/7 when she was alive in 16. Livia made it to 87, but she hadn't been stuck in exile for years without any doctors etc... Plus Scribonia was still in full possession of her wits. Historians tend to agree that, given and take all I've mentioned and also that she managed to bare living children between 48 and 38 BC, she needn't have been anymore then thirty when she married Octavius. --Camblunt100 21:44, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  What about her parents? Wasn't her brother born in 90 BC? Surely her parents wouldn't have have waited twenty odd years to have kids. --82.34.129.62 21:46, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  No one knows for sure which Lucius Scribonius Libo was her father; because of the statement that Scribonia was Augustus' "elder by many years" many other historians assumed that the Scribonius born in 90 BC must have been her brother. Schied is one of the many historians who agree that the 90 BC Scribonius couldn't have been her brother because if she was in fact twenty years older then Augustus, or more, then she would have been 35 when she gave birth to Cornelius, 37 when she gave birth to Cornelia and 44 when she gave birth to Julia-- very unlikely! Many historians agree that the L. Scribonius Libo of 90 BC was in fact her father, and that her real brother was his son of the same namesake who was the father of Drusus and Lucius Scribonius. It should be noted that Seneca credits her for being the aunt of the Scribonius brothers killed by Tiberius, not the great-aunt. --Camblunt100 21:58, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

text: I agree, Scribonia's death date should be considered unknown. Just because her last action was in 16 AD doesn't mean she died. By all accounts she was healthy and still with all of her wits in tact, she could have died a year later for all we know. 16 AD should be the offical death date but shouldn't be give with certainty. --Sophie-Lou 10:48, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
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message: I accidentally hit Enter while entering my edit summary, so I'm putting the full edit summary here:
Copyedit including some factual corrections; rewrote bits of "drama/lit" section that they no longer sound like they're accusing authors of fiction of trying to rewrite history because they've taken literary license with the historical record. Binabik80 13:52, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
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