Gaius Antonius Hybrida
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Gaius Antonius Hybrida (lived 1st century BC) was an Ancient Rome politician.
Gaius was the second son of Marcus Antonius Orator and brother of Marcus Antonius Creticus, being thus uncle of the famed Mark Antony. His military career started as a legate and cavalry commander of Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the Mithridatic Wars. After Sulla's return to Rome, Gaius Antonius remained in Greece with a force of cavalry. He was supposed to maintain peace and order but ended in plundering the countryside and sacking for his own profit several temples and holy places. Rumours of atrocities committed on the local population, which included maiming and torture, earned him the nickname Hybrida ("half-beast") (Pliny, Nat. Hist. viii. 213).
In 76 BC he was prosecuted for his malpractices by the young Gaius Julius Caesar, but escaped punishment because he successfully appealed to the people's tribunes.[1] Years later, in 70 BC, he was removed from the Senate and stripped out of senatorial rank by the censors, still on charges due to the atrocities committed in Greece. In spite of his bad reputation, however, he was elected tribune in 71 BC, which meant that he again joined the senate, then praetor in 66 BC, and finally consul with Marcus Tullius Cicero in 63 BC. He secretly supported Lucius Sergius Catiline, but Cicero won him to his side by promising him the governorship of the rich province of Macedonia. On the outbreak of the Catilinarian conspiracy, Hybrida was obliged as consul to lead an army into Etruria, but handed over the command on the day of battle to Marcus Petreius, on the ground of ill-health.
He then went to Macedonia, where he made himself so detested by his oppressive rule and extortions over the people, that he was forced to leave the province. In 59 BC, Hybrida was accused in Rome both of having taken part in the Catiline conspiracy and of extortion in his province. It was said that Cicero had agreed with Hybrida to share his plunder.[citation needed] Cicero's defence of Hybrida two years before in view of a proposal for his recall, and also on the occasion of his trial, increased the suspicion. Despite Cicero's defense, Hybrida was condemned, and went into exile at Cephallenia. He seems to have been recalled by Gaius Julius Caesar, since he was present at a meeting of the Senate in 44 BC, and was censor in 42 BC.
His daughter Antonia Hybrida was the second wife of Mark Antony.
[edit] References
- Cicero, In Cat. iii. 6, pro Flacco, 38
- Plutarch, Cicero, 12
- Dio Cassius, xxxvii. 39, 40; xxxviii. 10
- On his trial see article in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie.
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
| Preceded by: Lucius Julius Caesar and Gaius Marcius Figulus |
Consul of the Roman Republic with Marcus Tullius Cicero 63 BC |
Succeeded by: Decimus Junius Silanus and Lucius Licinius Murena |
