Acts 10:1

There was a certain man in Cesarea The oldest MSS. omit the verb washere, and make the sentence read, "Now a certain man in Cæsarea … a devout man … which gave much alms … saw in a vision, &c." Cæsarea is the same place which is mentioned Acts 8:40, and was usually the residence of the Roman Procurator (see Acts 23:23-26; Acts 25:1-4). The soldiers over whom Cornelius was centurion were the necessary troops to support the state and authority of the Roman representative, who at this time was Herod Agrippa, whom Claudius had made king over Judæa and Samaria.

called Cornelius Lit. "Cornelius by name." The name shews he was a Roman, and perhaps he may have been of the famous Cornelian Gens. But there were also many plebeians of this name, for Sulla (Appian B. C.i. 100) bestowed the Roman franchise on 10,000 slaves and called them after his own name, "Cornelii."

a centurion This was not a distinguished office. He was commander of the sixth part of a cohort, i.e. of half a maniple. The name must have been given to such officer when his command was over a hundredmen. The Roman legion in these times was divided into ten cohorts, and each cohort into three maniples, so that the nominal strength of the legion would be 6000 men.

of the band i.e. the cohort. Such a troop was stationed in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion (Matthew 27:27).

called the Italian band The name at first would be given to it from the country in which it was raised, but no doubt it would afterwards be recruited from other parts, and yet still retain its original title. Tacitus (Hist. i. 59 &c.) mentions an Italianlegion. A centurion of a similar band, which was styled "Augustan," is mentioned (Acts 27:1) below.