Marcus Antonius Creticus
1st-century BC Roman politician
Marcus Antonius Creticus (fl. 74–72 BC), was a Roman politician during the late Roman Republic. He is best known for his failed pirate-hunting career and for being the father of the general Mark Antony.
Biography
Early life
A member of the plebeian gens Antonia, Creticus was the son of the famed orator Marcus Antonius. He had a sister named Antonia and a younger brother named Gaius Antonius Hybrida.
Career
In 74 BC, Creticus was elected praetor and was given unusually broad powers to deal with piracy in the Mediterranean Sea and assist the ongoing operations against King Mithridates VI of Pontus. These powers paralleled those given to Pompey in 67 BC and his father in 102 BC. Creticus not only failed in the task, but plundered the very provinces he was supposed to protect from robbery. He attacked the Cretans, who had made an alliance with the pirates, but was totally defeated, most of his ships being sunk.
Diodorus Siculus states that he only saved himself by a disgraceful treaty. As a result of this defeat he was mockingly given the cognomen Creticus, which means "conqueror of Crete", and also "man made of chalk", when translated from Latin.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q357585.
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This entry incorporates text from “Marcus Antonius Creticus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.