The  mention  of  this  circumstance  leads  us  to  give  some  account  of
the  troops  quartered  in  Palestine,  and  of  the  general  distribution  of  the
Roman  army,  without  some  notion  of  which  no  adequate  idea  can  be
obtained  of  the  Empire  and  the  Provinces.  Moreover,  St.  Paul  is
brought,  about  this  part  of  his  life,  into  such  close  relations  with  difierent
parts  of  that  military  service,  from  which  he  draws  some  of  his  most
forcible  imagery,^  that  our  narrative  would  be  incomplete  without  some
account  both  of  the  Praetorian  guards  and  the  legionary  soldiers.  The
latter  force  may  be  fitly  described  in  connection  with  Caesarea,  and  we
shall  see  that  it  is  not  out  of  place  to  allude  here  to  the  former  also,
though  its  natural  association  is  with  the  city  of  Rome.
