‘Festus therefore, having come into the province, after three days went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews informed him against Paul, and they besought him, asking a favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying a plot to kill him on the way.'
Once Festus arrived in the province he almost immediately ‘went up' to Jerusalem from Caesarea in order to bring matters under control there, for it was in Jerusalem that the main political body of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, operated. This resulted in the chief priests and other leaders of the Jews speaking to him of Paul, to Paul's detriment, and requesting that Paul be sent for and brought to Jerusalem for trial. Time may have passed but they had not forgotten him. You did not call Ananias a ‘whited wall' in public and get away with it, and while he had possibly by this time been replaced by Ishmael as High Priest, the insult to the High Priesthood still stung. (The expression ‘chief priests' probably indicates that Ananias was still involved even though he had been deposed as High Priest, by Agrippa II).
This instant approach about Paul might serve to confirm that throughout his imprisonment his influence had continued to be felt throughout Judaea, and that he had thus been brought continually to their minds. Otherwise they would surely not have seen him as of such prime importance that it was one of the first things that they wanted dealt with.
But nor could they forgive the fact that he was a Christian Jew, who was prominent in winning people to the new faith, and for going to the Gentiles. Their continuing purpose was that Paul might be killed at some time while on the way to Jerusalem, for they recognised that really they could produce no case against him. They had already tried and failed. So things had not changed. The cessation of activity had not been due to their dropping their case, but due to their recognition that while Felix was in power they would get nowhere. They now hoped under the new procurator to resolve the matter by getting rid of Paul once and for all.