Gaius Antonius Hybrida

Gaius Antonius Hybrida was Cicero's colleague as consul in 63 BC, the nominal victor over Catiline, and the uncle of Mark Antony. His cognomen means something like the half-breed or the monster, and it was not affectionate. He served under Sulla in Greece and plundered it thoroughly enough that Greek envoys brought a prosecution against him in Rome in 76 BC; Caesar, then a young man building a reputation, appeared for the prosecution. He was expelled from the Senate by the censors in 70 BC for extortion and for having sold his property to evade his debts, and he climbed back through the praetorship anyway. In 63 BC he stood for the consulship on a joint ticket with Catiline. Cicero, elected alongside him, assumed he was in the conspiracy and bought him off by handing over the rich province of Macedonia, which had been allotted to Cicero himself. When the campaign against Catiline came to battle at Pistoria in January 62 BC, Hybrida held the command and pleaded gout on the morning, giving the army to his legate Marcus Petreius. Petreius destroyed the rebels and Catiline died in the front line. Whether the gout was genuine or the reluctance of a man asked to kill his former running mate was debated at the time and cannot be settled now. He went on to govern Macedonia, extorted it as he had extorted Greece, and was beaten by the Dardanians and by the Bastarnae near the Danube. He was convicted on his return in 59 BC - Cicero defended him and lost - and exiled to Cephallenia, where he reportedly ran the island as a private estate. He was recalled by Caesar and lived to be censor in 42 BC.

• Lived: 106 BCE – 42 BCE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: politician, military_leader