But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison.” The Roman forbade the binding or beating of a Roman citizen. Cicero, in his celebrated Oration against Verres, asserts: “It is a transgression of the law to bind a Roman citizen; it is wickedness to scourge him. Unheard, no man can be condemned.” So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing
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