A centurion was an officer in the Roman military. It is estimated that he would be responsible for between eighty and one hundred men. Since Roman troops were not stationed in Judea until the Jewish revolt of AD 70, Cornelius would have been part of an auxiliary force made up of recruits from the local area. Quite possibly he served in the Cohors II Italica civium romanorum voluntariorum militaria.1 In modern military terms, his rank would be equivalent to that of a captain.2
1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort,