As a civitas libera Thessalonica enjoyed auto- nomy in all internal all'airs. It was the residence of the provincial governor, but in ordinary circum- stances he exercised no civic authority. The city was ruled by its own magistrates, who were known as politarchs (Ac 17°). Luke's accuracy in the use of political terms is here strikingly illustrated. The term irdXiTapxai is not found in any classical author, though the forms iroXid/jx"' ^^'^ iroXirdpxoi occur ; but tlie inscription on a marble archway, probably erected in the time of Vespasian and still spanning a street of modern Thessalonica, begins with the word nOAITAPXOTNTON, which is followed by the names of seven magistrates. As part of its con- stitution Thessalonica had no doubt a senate and public assembly, but it is not clear whether the people (Srip.o'i) to whom an attempt was made to bring out Paul and Silas was the regular public meeting, as W. M. Ramsay thinks (St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, London, 1895, p. 2'28), or the disorderly mob. In a free city even the canaille of the forum — ol ayopaioi — liked to feel that they had a semblance of power, and their passions could easily be played upon by flattering and panic-mongering demagogues.
But St. Paul's real enemies in Thessalonica were bis own compatriots, who had been attracted to tlie city as a busy mart of commerce. Evidence of the presence of Jews in Macedonia is to be found in Philo's version of an Epistle of Agrippa to Caligula (de Virtut. et legat. ad Caium, 36). Their numbers and influence in Thessalonica are indicated by the ' great multitude ' of Greeks who had accepted the Jewish faith (Ac 17''), as well as by the ease with which they made the city crowd the instrument of their will. St. Paul went to the synagogue of Thessalonica, doubtless a splendid one, according to his custom (/carA rb elu86s ; cf. Lk 4"), his rule being to go ' to the Jew first ' (Ro 2'- '"). His preaching and reasoning on three successive Sabbaths — or perhaps during three whole weeks (o-d/S/SoTo)— ended in the inevitable quarrel between Jew and Jewish Christian. Luke's suc- cinct narrative might be supposed to imply that St. Paul's work in the city did not extend beyond the synagogue, and that Jewish intrigues com- pelled him to leave at the end of three weeks ; but that can scarcely be the historian's meaning. Time must be allowed for the conversion of a large number of the Gentile population of Thessalonica, for the founding of an important and influential church, and for the Christians of Philippi, 100 miles distant, sending St. Paul their gifts ' once and again' (Ph 4"'). The Apostle himself recalls a fruitful ministry among tlie Thessalonians, in which he ' dealt with each one ' not publicly but privately, 'as a father with his own children' (1 Th 2"), till he had formed the nucleus of a Christian church. This quiet house-to-house work could not be compressed into three weeks. Ramsay thinks that St. Paul's residence in Thessalonica prob- ably lasted from Dec. A.D. 50 to May 51 {St. Paul the Traveller, p. 228). J. Mott'att's suggestion of a month or two [EGT iv. 3) seems barely sufficient.
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As the liostile .lows of Tliessalonioa knew that tliey could not silence St. I'aul hy fair means, they resorted to foul, geltini; the rabble of t!;e forum to do the work of which they personally were ashamed. The accusatiim which was trumped up afjainst the Apostle amounted to hi^h treason (.\e 17'), and resembled the charfje that had been levelled against Jesus Himself (>In 19'--'°). There was hypocrisy in the iiulictinent. Tlie Messianic hope cherished bj" every devout Israelite -was counted no crime, yet the actual proclamation of ' another king, Jesus,' is set down as an act of open rebellion, and the Jews of Thcssalonica, like those of Jerusalem, have no king but C;Rsar. Though only the most ignorant of the populace took the charge seriously, and the politarchs soon satislied themselves that it was baseless, yet la-sa maiestas was much too grave a matter to be dealt with lightly.
Tacitus says that already in the reifxn of Tiberius ' the charj^e of treason (ormed the universal resource in accusations' (Ann. iii. 3S), and in course of time it became more and more common. The mere suspicion of maUi^tas was many a man's ruin. Pliny the younger says in liis panegyric of Trajan tliat nothing enriched the exchequer of the prince and the public treasury so much as the charge of treason, ' singulare et unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacarent' (Paneg. 42).
The magistrates of Thessaloiiica saw that they liad to demonstrate their loyalty to the Empire. As the peace of the city liad been disturbed, the angry passions of the 'wild beast' aroused, and a dangerous state of public feeling created, they felt justified in binding over the Apostle's friends — Jason and others — to keep the peace, and in the circumstances this could be done only if those friends advised the man who was the innocent cause of the disturbance to leave the town. Against the verdict of civic prudence it was vain to protest, but St. Paul evidently continued to chafe long under the ingenious device which made the honour of his friends a barrier between him and the work he had so successfully begun. It was such subtlety, and not the hatred of the mob, that made him think of the devices of Satan (1 Th 2^^).