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CETHEGUS—CETTE
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Eurhinodelphidae, typified by the European Miocene Eurhinodelphis, but also including the contemporary Patagonian Argyrocetus and the nearly allied European Cyrtodelphis. All these were very long-beaked dolphins; and in Argyrocetus, at all events, the occipital condyles, instead of being closely pressed to the skull, are as prominent as in ordinary mammals, while the nasal bones, instead of forming mere rudimentary nodules, were squared and roofed over the hind part of the nasal chamber.

In the Miocene Squalodon, representing the family Squalodontidae, the dentition is differentiated into incisors, canines and cheek-teeth, the hinder ones of the latter series having double roots and compressed crowns carrying serrations on the hinder edge; generally the dental formula has been given as i. 3/3, c. 1/1, p. 4/4, m. 7/7, the single-rooted cheek-teeth being regarded as premolars and those with double roots as molars. Dr Abel is, however, of opinion that the formula is better represented as i. 3/3, c. 1/1, p. 8 or 9/9, m. 3/2; the teeth reckoned as molars corresponding to those of the creodont Carnivora. The single-rooted cheek-teeth are regarded as due, not to the division of double-rooted ones, but to the fusion of the two roots of teeth of the latter type. In Squalodon the nasal bones were of the modern nodular type, but in the Miocene Patagonian Prosqualodon they partially covered the nasal chamber.

At present there is a gap between the most primitive squalodonts and the Eocene zeuglodonts (Zeuglodontidae), which are regarded by Messrs Max Weber, O. Abel and C. W. Andrews as the direct forerunners of the modern-toothed whales, forming the suborder Archaeoceti. It is, however, right to mention that some authorities refuse to admit the relation of the Archaeoceti to the whales.

In the typical zeuglodonts the long and flat skull has large temporal fossae, a strong sagittal crest, a long beak formed mainly by the premaxillae (in place of the maxillae, as in modern whales), and long nasal bones covering over the nasal chamber, so that the nostrils opened about half-way down the beak. All the cervical vertebrae were free. Normally the dentition in the typical genus Zeuglodon (which is common to the Eocene of North America and Egypt) is i. 3/3, c. 1/1, p. 4/4, m. 3/3; the cheek-teeth being two-rooted, with compressed pointed crowns, of which the fore-and-aft edges are coarsely serrated. In the Egyptian Zeuglodon osiris the number of the molars is, however, reduced to 2/3, while some of the earlier cheek-teeth have become single-rooted, as in the squalodonts. The probable transitional form between the latter and the zeuglodonts is the small Microzeuglodon caucasicus described by the present writer, from the Caucasus. As regards the origin of the zeuglodonts themselves, remains discovered in the Eocene formations of Egypt indicate a practically complete transition, so far at least as dental characters are concerned, from these whale-like creatures to the creodont Carnivora. In the earliest type, Protocetus, the skull is practically that of a zeuglodont, the snout being in fact more elongated than in some of the earliest representatives of the latter, although the nostrils are placed nearer the tip. The incisors are unknown, but the cheek-teeth are essentially those of a creodont, none of them having acquired the serrated edges distinctive of the typical zeuglodonts; and the hinder premolars and molars retaining the three roots of the creodonts. In the somewhat later Prozeuglodon the skull is likewise essentially of the zeuglodont type, although the nostrils have shifted a little more backwards; as regards the cheek-teeth, which have acquired serrated crowns, the premolars at any rate retain the inner buttress supported by a distinct third root, so that they are precisely intermediate between Protocetus and Zeuglodon. Yet another connecting form is Eocetus, a very large animal from nearly the same horizon as Prozeuglodon; its skull approaching that of Zeuglodon as regards the backward position of the nostrils, although the cheek-teeth are of the creodont type, having inner, or third, roots. It is noteworthy that Zeuglodon apparently occurs in the same beds as these intermediate types.

It follows from the foregoing that if zeuglodonts are the ancestors of the true Cetacea—and the probability that they are so is very great—the latter are derived from primitive Carnivora, and not, as has been suggested, from herbivorous Ungulata. The idea that the zeuglodonts were provided with a bony armour does not appear to be supported by recent discoveries.

Authorities.—The above article is based on that by Sir W. H. Flower in the 9th edition of this work. See also W. H. Flower, “On the Characters and Divisions of the Family Delphinidae,” Proc. Zool. Soc. (London, 1883); F. W. True, “Review of the Family Delphinidae,” Proc. U.S. Museum, No. 36 (1889); R. Lydekker, “Cetacean Skulls from Patagonia,” Palaeontol. Argentina, vol. ii: An. Mus. La Plata (1893); W. Dames, “Über Zeuglodonten aus Ägypten,” Paläontol. Abhandlungen, vol. i. (1894); F. E. Beddard, A Book of Whales (London, 1900); O. Abel, “Untersuchungen über die fossilen Platanistiden des Wiener Beckens,” Denks. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien., vol. lxviii. (1899); “Les Dauphins longirostres du Bolérien,” Mém. musée d’hist. nat. belgique (1901 and 1902); “Die phylogenetische Entwickelung des Cetaceengebisses und die systematische Stellung der Physeteriden,” Verhandl. deutsch. zool. Gesellschaft (1905); E. Fraas, “Neue Zeuglodonten aus dem unteren Mittelocean vom Mokattam bei Cairo,” Geol. und paläontol. Abhandl. ser. 2, vol. vi. (1904); C. W. Andrews, “Descriptive Catalogue of the Tertiary Vertebrata of the Fayum” (British Museum, 1906).  (R. L.*) 

CETHEGUS, the name of a Roman patrician family of the Cornelian gens. Like the younger Cato its members kept up the old Roman fashion of dispensing with the tunic and leaving the arms bare (Horace, Ars Poëtica, 50; Lucan, Pharsalia, ii. 543). Two individuals are of some importance:—

(1) Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, pontifex maximus and curule aedile, 213 B.C. In 211, as praetor, he had charge of Apulia; later, he was sent to Sicily, where he proved a successful administrator. In 209 he was censor, and in 204 consul. In 203 he was proconsul in Upper Italy, where, in conjunction with the praetor P. Quintilius Varus, he gained a hard-won victory over Mago, Hannibal’s brother, in Insubrian territory, and obliged him to leave Italy. He died in 196. He had a great reputation as an orator, and is characterized by Ennius as “the quintessence of persuasiveness” (suadae medulla). Horace (Ars Poët. 50; Epistles, ii. 2. 117) calls him an authority on the use of Latin words.

Livy xxv. 2, 41, xxvii. 11, xxix. 11, xxx. 18.

(2) Gaius Cornelius Cethegus, the boldest and most dangerous of Catiline’s associates. Like many other youthful profligates, he joined the conspiracy in the hope of getting his debts cancelled. When Catiline left Rome in 63 B.C., after Cicero’s first speech, Cethegus remained behind as leader of the conspirators with P. Lentulus Sura. He himself undertook to murder Cicero and other prominent men, but was hampered by the dilatoriness of Sura, whose age and rank entitled him to the chief consideration. The discovery of arms in Cethegus’s house, and of the letter which he had given to the ambassadors of the Allobroges, who had been invited to co-operate, led to his arrest. He was condemned to death, and executed, with Sura and others, on the night of the 5th of December.

Sallust, Catilina, 46-55; Cicero, In Cat. iii. 5-7; Appian, Bell. Civ. ii. 2-5; see Catiline.


CETINA, GUTIERRE DE (1518?–1572?), Spanish poet and soldier, was born at Seville shortly before 1520. He served under Charles V. in Italy and Germany, but retired from the army in 1545 to settle in Seville. Soon afterwards, however, he sailed for Mexico, where he resided for some ten years; he appears to have visited Seville in 1557, and to have returned to Mexico, where he died at some date previous to 1575. A follower of Boscan and Garcilaso de la Vega, a friend of Jerónimo de Urrea and Baltavar del Alcázar, Cetina adopted the doctrines of the Italian school and, under the name of Vandalio, wrote an extensive series of poems in the newly introduced metres; his sonnets are remarkable for elegance of form and sincerity of sentiment, his other productions being in great part adaptations from Petrarch, Ariosto and Ludovico Dolce. His patrons were Antonio de Leyva, prince of Ascoli, Hurtado de Mendoza, and Alva’s grandson, the duke de Sessa, but he seems to have profited little by their protection. His works have been well edited by Joaquín Hazañas y la Rúa in two volumes published at Seville (1895).


CETTE, a seaport of southern France in the department of Hérault, 18 m. S.W. of Montpellier by the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) 32,659. After Marseilles it is the principal commercial port on the south coast of France. The older part of Cette occupies the foot and slope of the Mont St Clair (the ancient Mons Setius), a hill 590 ft. in height, situated on a tongue of land that lies between the Mediterranean and the lagoon of Thau. This quarter with its wide streets and lofty stone buildings is bounded on the east by the Canal de Cette, which leads from the lagoon of Thau to the Old Basin and the outer harbour. Across the canal lie the newer quarters, which chiefly occupy two islands separated from each other by a wet dock and limited on the east by the Canal Maritime, parallel to the Canal de Cette. A lateral canal unites the northern ends of the two main canals. A breakwater running W.S.W. and