Acts 25:16

Acts 25:16. It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. The Jews had asked (Acts 25:3) only that the accused might be brought to Jerusalem, intending, as we know, to murder him on the way by the hands of a company of hired Sicarii (assassins) whom they had hired for this purpose. The words of Festus here to King Agrippa must then relate to another and a different request of the Jews, viz. that he would at once, without any further hearing, condemn Paul to death. Probably each of these requests had been made to the new procurator, and having failed in the first, they arranged the ambuscade and asked that the trial might take place anew in Jerusalem, the scene of part of the crimes alleged.

The proud assertion which the Roman here makes to Agrippa, as far as we know, was justified in Festus case, who was reported to have been a fair ruler and a just judge.