Acts 16:22 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. The multitude rose up together - There was a general outcry against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes, and delivered them to the mob, commanding the lictors, or beadles, to beat them with rods, ῥαβδιζειν. This was the Roman custom of treating criminals, as Grotius has well remarked.