Scribonia (c. 70 BC[1][2] – c. AD 16)[3] was the second[4] wife of Octavian, later the Roman Emperor Augustus, and the mother of his only biological child, Julia the Elder.

If this is so then she was the younger sister of a brother of the same name who was consul in 34 BC, whose daughter, another Scribonia, married Sextus Pompey.

[7] The name of the first is unknown, but a number of authorities—including Bartolomeo Borghesi, Hermann Dessau, Edmund Groag and Ronald Syme—have suggested that he was Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus, consul in 56 BC, because of the existence of an inscription that refers to freedmen of Scribonia and her son Cornelius Marcellinus after 39 BC.

[11] However, as historian John Scheid has pointed out, all of them overlook the fact that Suetonius clearly states there were no children by her first marriage.

The marriage was brief and unhappy; he divorced her on the very same day as the birth of their daughter, Julia the Elder, his only natural child.

[16]Suetonius also notes Scribonia's affiliation with Scribonius Aphrodisius, slave and pupil of Lucius Orbilius Pupillus.

Contemporary historians are vague regarding the circumstances of her death; while Dio Cassius indicates Tiberius had her killed,[21] Tacitus writes that after her youngest son, Agrippa Postumus, was murdered she succumbed to despair and her health slowly declined.

Scribonia's last known activity was around AD 16; when her great-nephew, Marcus Scribonius Libo Drusus, conspired against Tiberius she encouraged him to face trial and punishment rather than commit suicide, telling him, "What joy is there in doing another man's job?"

[22] Although Seneca disapproves of Scribonia's advice, referring to her as "gravis femina; gravis", meaning "dignified and severe" in an old fashioned Roman manner, modern historians have praised her as an exemplary Roman matron with the composure to sustain her rejected daughter Julia and suicidal nephew Scribonius in their tragic misfortunes.