Filled with confusion; tumults and noise; all conditions of men, high and low, promiscuously being met in such uproars. Gaius; one born at Derbe, but living at Thessalonica, as Acts 20:4. Aristarchus; of whom we read, Acts 27:2 Colossians 4:10. The theatre; a place or structure built for public uses; whence;
1. Their sports or plays in any public solemnity were beheld.
2. Their speeches or orations in their common assemblies were heard.
3. Where they punished also their malefactors; it being accommodated with several steps or seats higher than one another, and of vast extent for these purposes. Hither, according to their custom, they resort, to hear if any one would speak upon this occasion to them; or rather, to get these Christians condemned and executed for their supposed sacrilege and blasphemy.