they are proclaiming customs which as Romans we are not allowed to accept or observe!"

I told them Romans were not in the habit of giving up any man until the accused met the accusers face to face and had a chance of defending himself against the impeachment.

Three days later, he called the leading Jews together, and when they met he said to them, "Brothers, although I have done nothing against the People or our ancestral customs, I was handed over to the Romans as a prisoner from Jerusalem.

We then came to the Roman colony of Philippi, which is the foremost town of the district of Macedonia. In this town we spent some days.

But Paul replied, "They flogged us in public and without a trial, flogged Roman citizens! They put us in prison, and now they are going to get rid of us secretly! No indeed! Let them come here themselves and take us out!"

The lictors reported this to the praetors, who, on hearing the men were Roman citizens, became alarmed;

They had strapped him up, when Paul said to the officer who was standing by, "Are you allowed to scourge a Roman citizen ??and to scourge him without a trial?"

When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and said to him, "What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen."

So the commander went to him and said, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said.

Then those who were to have examined him left him at once alone; even the commander was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

This man had been seized by the Jews and was on the point of being murdered by them, when I came on them with the troops and rescued him, as I had ascertained that he was a Roman citizen.