Scribonius Aphrodisius

{{short description|Roman writer and literary critic}}

Scribonius Aphrodisius was a grammarian of ancient Rome. He was originally a slave and disciple of the grammarian Lucius Orbilius Pupillus, who was also the teacher of the Roman poet Horace.{{cite encyclopedia | last=Kaster | first=R. A.| editor-last=Hornblower | editor-first=Simon | editor-link=Simon Hornblower | editor2-last=Spawforth | editor2-first=Antony | editor2-link=Antony Spawforth | editor3-last=Eidinow | editor3-first=Esther| editor3-link=Esther Eidinow | title =Scribonius Aphrodisius | encyclopedia =The Oxford Classical Dictionary | pages =1331 | publisher =Oxford University Press | date =2012 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=bVWcAQAAQBAJ | isbn= 9780199545568 | access-date = 2016-02-21}} He was purchased by Scribonia, the second wife of the emperor Augustus, and was by her manumitted.Suetonius, De Illustribus Grammaticis 19 She may have purchased him to educate her children, or possibly herself.{{cite book | last =Hemelrijk | first =Emily Ann | authorlink =Emily Ann Hemelrijk | title =Matrona Docta: Educated Women in the Roman Élite from Cornelia to Julia Domna | publisher =Psychology Press | series =Routledge classical monographs | date =2004 | pages =239 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=pPwDo83kCQoC | isbn = 9780415341271 | access-date=2016-02-21}}

Aphrodisius is known to have written a treatise on orthography, in opposition to a similar work written by the grammarian Verrius Flaccus,{{cite book | last =Fantham | first =Elaine | authorlink =Elaine Fantham | title =Julia Augusti | publisher =Routledge | series =Women of the Ancient World | date =2006 | pages =23 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=vUF-AgAAQBAJ | isbn = 9781134323449 | access-date=2016-02-21}} also a freedman, but this work is now lost.{{cite book | last =de Cassagnac | first =Adolphe Granier | authorlink =Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac | translator-first=Green | translator-last=Benjamin Edwards | title =History of the Working and Burgher Classes | publisher =Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger | date =1871 | pages =249 | isbn =9780608421797 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=JO9AAAAAIAAJ | access-date=2016-02-21}}