His name, church tradition tells us, was Longinus. We do not really know much about him except that he was an elite fighting man in the greatest army the world had known up until that time; a military force that had swept all of the known world before them; they were unstoppable and unbeatable. He was a Centurion; an officer we identify as a captain, for he commanded a company size force of 100 Roman soldiers; a Centuria.

Because he belonged to the Roman Empire’s fighting elite, as a Centurion he was trained to value power and brute force, and to obey absolutely those in authority over him while believing in the complete suppression of any enemies of Rome by any means necessary. He would not have been known for his compassion, but rather brutality and strength, and you can be sure that he was totally uninterested in the rantings of a wandering preacher who had stirred up the populace in an alarming way. So much so, that he could easily watch without emotion as that preacher was put to death in the slow, incredibly painful way reserved for criminals who were not citizens of Rome. This is the man; a soldier's soldier.