A new synthesis of cerium tetrakis(tropolonate), Ce(trop)(4), where trop is deprotonated 2-hydroxy-2,4,6-cycloheptatrienone) or Ce(O2C7H5)(4), is developed that results in dark-purple crystals whose X-ray crystal structure shows that the geometry of the eight-coordinate compound closely resembles a D-2d dodecahedron, based on shape parameters. The magnetic susceptibility as a function of the temperature (4-300 K) shows that it is a temperature-independent paramagnet, chi = 1.2(3) X 10(-4 )emu/mol, and the L-III-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectrum shows that the molecule is multiconfigurational, comprised of a f(1):f(0) configuration mixture in a 50:50 ratio. Ce(acac)(4) and Ce(tmtaa)(2) (where acac is acetylacetonate and tmtaaH(2) is tetramethyldibenzotetraaza[14]annulene) have similar physical properties, as does the solid-state compound CeO2. The concept is advanced that trop(-), acac(-), tmtaa(2-), cot(2-), and O2- are redox-active ligands that function as electron donors, rendering the classification of these compounds according to their oxidation numbers misleading because their magnetic susceptibilities, chi, are positive and their effective magnetic moments, mu(eff), lie in the range of 0.1-0.7 mu B at 300 K.