The robbery of an Imperial slave named Stephanus while he is traveling near Beth-horon triggers further unrest in Judea.

Troops sent by Cumanus to arrest the leading men of the nearby villages begin plundering the area.

One of them, finding a copy of the Torah, destroys it in view of the villagers while shouting blasphemies.

A crowd of Jews, angered by this insult to God and to the Jewish religion,  confronts Cumanus at Caesarea Maritima, demanding that the guilty party should be punished.

The governor this time acts decisively and orders that the soldier responsible should be beheaded in front of his accusers, temporarily restoring the calm.

Cornelius, a centurion stationed in Caesarea with the Cohors II Italica Civium Romanorum, mentioned as Cohors Italica in the Vulgate, is depicted in the New Testament as a God-fearing man who always prayed and was full of good works and deeds of alms.

Cornelius receives a vision in which an angel of God tells him that his prayers have been heard.

The angel then instructs Cornelius to send the men of his household to Joppa, where they will find Simon Peter, who is residing with a tanner by the name of Simon.