The two struck a deal which effectively allowed Cicero to rule as sole consul in exchange for Hybrida receiving the governorship of Macedonia at the end of his term.
[7] In 87 BC, Hybrida accompanied Lucius Cornelius Sulla on his campaign against Mithridates VI of Pontus either as a military tribune or as a legate.
[3][8] Two years earlier, the Mithridatic Wars had begun due to a dispute between Mithridates and Nicomedes III of Bithynia over the Roman province of Cappadocia.
[3][8][12] Years later, in 70 BC, the censors Gellius and Lentulus expelled Hybrida from the Senate for the criminal offences committed by him while in Greece, for disobeying the summons of a praetor[c] and for the wasteful use of his property.
[3] Hybrida is described by the English historian Antony Kamm as "a thoroughly disreputable character" and by author William E. Dunstan as "thuggish".
[3] For the consular elections of 64, Hybrida and another candidate, Catiline, received the support of Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus for their bids to become consuls of Rome.
[13][14] A third candidate also existed for the consular elections, Marcus Tullius Cicero, whom Dunstan describes as being a "brilliant orator", but he came from an undistinguished family.
[13][15] Cicero, upon becoming consul, immediately moved to strike a deal with his consular colleague Hybrida, who had supported Catiline and his party, and who might join a rebellion against the state.
[16][17] As part of his campaign, Catiline promised reforms to reduce and cancel debts, a proposal which brought him the support of bankrupt aristocrats, debtors, and poor farmers whose agricultural ventures had failed.
[16][17] On the day of the elections, Cicero attended wearing a breastplate under his tunic in an attempt to raise the alarm in the Senate and provoke the fear that Catiline might resort to violence as consul.
[17] At this meeting, Cicero launched an attack against Catiline denouncing him "to his face" while providing the details of the plot that he had learned of the night before.
[18] Towards the end of 63, Hybrida went to Etruria to assist the praetor Quintus Metellus Celer in preventing Catiline escaping through the Alps and into Gaul.
[20] The ancient Roman historian Cassius Dio narrates the events thus: The latter, while governor of Macedonia, had inflicted many injuries upon the subject territory as well as upon that which was in alliance with Rome, and had suffered many disasters in return.
For after ravaging the possessions of the Dardanians and their neighbours, he did not dare to await their attack, but pretending to retire with his cavalry for some other purpose, took to flight; in this way the enemy surrounded his infantry and forcibly drove them out of the country, even taking away their plunder from them.
In both of these instances, a failed retreat by Hybrida and his cavalry led to his unit being absolutely defeated and any plunder accrued during the attack was forfeited back to the natives.
[20][21] This lack of success, rather than the extortion of the provincials, drew the attention of the Senate who threatened to recall and prosecute Hybrida for his mismanagement of the province.
[20][22][23] In the end, Hybrida was tried by Marcus Caelius Rufus for his participation in the Catilinarian conspiracy and by Lucius Caninius Gallus for his crimes in Macedonia.