A senator in the period of Marius and Sulla, very influential in the Senate and in the political intrigues of the decade of the 70s (Ps.-Ascon. on Verr. 2.2.8, 259St.; Plut. Luc. 5-6; Cic. Cluent. 84-86; and esp. Paradox. 5.40, a description which makes him comparable to a modern party boss). Probably son of the monetalis Cethegus (MRR 2.437; see Crawford, RRC 1.302-303, no. 288, 115 or 114 B.C.), he may have attained office before the Social War (Cic. Brut. 178; cf. Plut. Mar. 40.3; App. BC 1.60, 62, and 80; Sall. Hist. 1.77.20 M; Val. Max. 9.2.1). See L. R. Taylor, Party Politics 70; RS, MS-RP 1.279-280. Sumner credits this aequalis of Caesar Strabo qui in senatu consularium auctoritatem assequebatur (Cic. Brut. 178) with attainment at some time of a praetorship (Orators 106).
(Broughton MRR III)