_Devout._――Some have tried hard to make out that Cornelius was what they call “a proselyte of the gate;” that is, one who, though not circumcised, nor conforming to the rituals generally, yet was an observer of the _moral_ law. But Lardner very fully shows that there were not two sorts of proselytes; all who bore that name fully conforming to the Jewish rituals, but still called “strangers,” &c.; because, though admitted to all the religious privileges of the covenant, they were excluded from the civil and political privileges of Jews, and could not be freeholders. Cornelius must then have been a mere Gentile. (See Lardner in his life of Peter; also Kuinoel and Bloomfield.) _Caesarea._――This is another of those cities enlarged or rebuilt by the princes of the Herodian line, and honored with the names of the imperial family. This city stood on the sea-shore, about 30 miles north of Joppa; and (Modern Traveler) 62 north-north-west from Jerusalem. (600 stadia Josephus.) It has been idly conjectured by the Rabbinical writers, that this was the same with Ekron, of the Old Testament, Zephaniah ii. 4; while the Arabic version gives it as Hazor, Joshua xi. 1,――both with about equal probability. The earliest name by which it can be certainly recognized, is Apollonia, which it bore when it passed from the Syro-Grecians to the Maccabean princes. Its common name, in the time of Herod the Great, was πυργος Στρατωνος, _turris Stratonis_, “Straton’s castle,” from the name of a Greek pirate who had built a strong hold here. Herod the Great made it the most splendid city in his dominions, and even in all the eastern part of the Roman empire; and in honor of Augustus Caesar, called it Caesarea Augusta. It was sometimes called Caesarea _Palestinae_, to distinguish it from Caesarea _Philippi_; for Palestine was then a name limited to the southern part of the coast of the Holy Land, and was bounded on the north by Phoenicia. This city was the capital of the whole Holy Land throughout the period of the later Herodian and Roman sway.