Gaius Antonius Hybrida

Who is Gaius Antonius Hybrida?

Gaius Antonius Hybrida was a politician of the Roman Republic. He was the second son of Marcus Antonius Orator and brother of Marcus Antonius Creticus; his mother is unknown. He was the uncle of the famed triumvir 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, Hybrida 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. It was the rumors of his plundering and atrocities committed on the local population, which included maiming and torture, that earned him the nickname Hybrida.

In 76 BC he was prosecuted for his malpractices by the young Julius Caesar, but escaped punishment because he successfully appealed to the people's tribunes. Years later, in 70 BC, he was removed from the Senate and stripped of senatorial rank by the censors, still on charges due to the atrocities committed in Greece.