That mixed mob “assaulted the house of Jason [Paul’s host] and went seeking to have them brought forth to the rabble.” Not finding Paul, they turned to the city’s highest level of administration. So “they dragged Jason and certain brothers to the city rulers, crying out: ‘These men that have overturned the inhabited earth are present here also.’”​—Acts 17:5, 6.

As capital of Macedonia, Thessalonica enjoyed some autonomy. Part of its self-government was a people’s assembly, or citizens’ council, that handled local public issues. The “city rulers,” or politarchs,b were high officials, duty-bound to keep order and defuse situations that could lead to Roman intervention and loss of the city’s privileges. So they would be disturbed to hear that public peace was threatened by these “troublemakers.”