Cornelius in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

kor-ne'-li-us (Kornelios, "of a horn"): The story of Cornelius is given in Acts 10:1 through 11:18. 1. His Family and Station: The name is Roman and belonged to distinguished families in the imperial city, such as the Scipios and Sulla. Thus he was probably an Italian of Roman blood. Julian the Apostate reckons him as one of the few persons of distinction who became a Christian. He was evidently a man of importance in Caesarea and well known to the Jews (Acts 10:22). He was a centurion in the Italian cohort. To understand this we must note that the Roman army was divided into two broad divisions, the legions and the auxiliary forces. See ARMY, ROMAN. Legions were never permanently quartered in Israel until the great war which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem, 70 AD. From the year 6 AD, when Israel was made into province of the second rank, until 66 AD, it was garrisoned by auxiliary troops recruited amongst the Samaritans and Syrian Greeks. The headquarters were naturally at Caesarea, the residence of the procurator. But it would not have been prudent for a garrison in Israel to be composed wholly of troops locally recruited. Therefore the Roman government mingled with the garrison 600 soldiers, free Italian volunteers. With this cohort Cornelius was connected as centurion...