Acts 16:19

‘But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers,'

Her masters, who were no doubt already wealthy and influential, were angry when they realised that the source of their profits had been removed, and they had Paul and Silas dragged into the market place before the authorities, the ‘archontes', the chief men. The marketplace was often the place where justice was carried out, because the marketplace was the focal point in any city. Archaeological discoveries in ancient Philippi may in fact well have unearthed this very ‘place of justice'.