Italian
Italian [1]
( Ι᾿ταλικός ) occurs but once in Scripture, in the mention of the "Italian band," i.e. Roman cohort, to which Cornelius belonged ( Acts 10:1). "This seems to have been a cohort of Italians separate from the legionary soldiers, and not a cohort of the ‘ Legio Italica,' of which we read at a later period (Tacitus, Hist. 1, 59, 64; 2, 100; 3:14) as being raised by Nero (Dio Cass. 55, 24; Sueton. Nero, 19). (See Biscoe, On the Acts, p. 300 sq.) Wieseler (Chronol. p. 145) thinks they were Italian volunteers; and there is an inscription in Gruter in which the following words occur: ‘ Cohors militum Italicorum voluntaria, quse est in Syria' (see Ackerman, Numismatic Illustrations, p. 34)" (Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, 1, 113). There is a monograph on the subject: Schwarz, De cohorte Italica et Augusta (Altdorf, 1720). (See Cohort).
