John Gill Commentary Acts 22:28

"And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this citizenship. And Paul said, But I am [a Roman] born." — Acts 22:28 (ASV)

And the chief captain answered, with a great sum obtained I
this freedom
For, it seems, he was not a Roman born, but very likely a Grecian, or Syrian, by his name Lysias; and as all things were now venal at Rome, the freedom of the city was to be bought with money, though a large sum was insisted on for it: this the chief captain said, as wondering that so mean a person, and who he understood was a Jew by birth, should be able to procure such a privilege, which cost him so much money:

and Paul said, but I was free born ;
being born at Tarsus; which, as Pliny says ^F12 , was a free city, and which had its freedom given it by Mark Antony, and which was before the birth of Paul; and therefore his parents being of this city, and free, he was born so.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F12: Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 27.